Tennessee basketball coasted past Norfolk State on Tuesday night in its final game before SEC play begins. The Vols used an 18-0 run to end the first half before cruising to an 87-50 victory.
Following the win Tennessee coach Rick Barnes discussed the complete performance, where the team is at entering conference play and much more.
“We played well tonight,” Barnes said. “We really did. In terms of maybe as close to a complete game overall. We just need to make layups. I mean, we can’t leave those on the floor, on the board. But again, I thought the focus has been good since we got back.”
Dalton Knecht discussed how important the 12 days off were for his injured ankle, him getting back on track against the Spartans and more. Zakai Zeigler discussed how he’s improved while working back from his ACL injury, how Santiago Vescovi subtly affects games and more.
“I mean it was big time,” Knecht said of the break. “I mean, just being able to stay off of it was big for me. I mean that was probably the biggest injury I’ve ever had so far and I got lucky. So it was just nice just to be able to go home and relax, rest up and stuff, and then get ready for Norfolk and now SEC.”
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“He can run a whole play. He can set up a whole play and it will work on his own without Coach drawing it up or anything like that,” Zakai Zeigler said of Vescovi. “People don’t notice how smart he really is and how he can pick up on defense, and just do what he does. And we see that every day and see it in practice. Like he’ll randomly just do something, that we might not see, but we’ll listen to him because we trust him and we know what he can do. Just by listening to him, things will go good. People just don’t see how smart he really is on the court.”
