LEXINGTON, Ky. — Zakai Zeigler walked up to Tennessee associate head coach and “defensive coordinator” Justin Gainey during free throws in the first half of the Vols’ 67-58 win over UCLA on Saturday night with a simple suggestion.
“I asked Coach Gainey, ‘do you want to go into this press right here?’” Zeigler said postgame. “He said, ‘yeah, let’s do it. Let’s try it out.’”
The decision changed the game. UCLA held a mild lead for most of the first half and Tennessee struggled to create open looks against the Bruins’ staunch half court defense.
Tennessee went to a 1-2-2 press that they have not run a lot this season. The Vols are a hyper aggressive defensive team but it’s not an aggressive press. It’s designed to push the opponent to the corner as they cross mid court, and to trap them there with no where to retreat.
The Vols knew they might use the press going into the game because of UCLA’s lack of a true point guard. With leading ball handler Skyy Clark on the bench with two fouls, Tennessee decided it was worth the risk.
“It was huge. We wanted to disrupt the rhythm a little bit,” Justin Gainey said. “We saw 55 (Skyy Clark) was in foul trouble and he had come out. So they were down one ball handler and that’s what led to it.
“We felt like they had good ball handlers but we weren’t sure they had a true point guard on that end,” Tennessee assistant coach Rod Clark said. “And then considering that Skyy Clark was one of their better ball handlers and he was on the bench with two fouls, really wanted to go after them. I thought we did. And we did a really good job of it.”
It worked flawlessly against the Bruins. UCLA ball handlers twice picked up their dribble right when they crossed half court. The first time led to a high pass that sailed over the outstretched arms of 7-foot-3 Aday Mara and into Igor Milicic’s arms. Milicic fired ahead to Jordan Gainey and the Vols’ sixth man finished the contested layup.
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Tennessee nearly got another steal from it shortly after when Felix Okpara knocked a pass out of bounds. Then in the final seconds of the first half, Kobe Johnson dribbled right into a trap from Zeigler and Gainey. Gainey tipped Johnson’s pass and Chaz Lanier intercepted it, taking it to the rim and finishing through contact to earn three points the old fashioned way.
“It kind of caught them off guard a little bit,” Zeigler said. “The way we got after them and had hands and had energy, those couple turnovers that we got we turned them into a few buckets but it definitely was a game changer.”
The two easy transition buckets were part of a 15-5 and an 8-0 run to end the first half for Tennessee. It was the sequence where Tennessee took control of the game. The Vols went into the halftime locker room with a seven-point advantage and never looked back, racing out to a 15-point lead early in the second half that all but put the game away.
“It was huge. Going on that 8-0 run off the press was big for us,” Clark said. “The guys were charged up once we turned them over one time. Stayed in it, wanted to stay at it. I thought that was big. It changed the game. It gave us a huge lift going into the half. Then in the second half, we created a turnover on the first possession and rolled off of that.”
Tennessee didn’t turn UCLA over off of the press any in the second half but the Bruins didn’t burn them on it either. By then, the damage was done. The press turned the tide of the game and sent Tennessee to the Sweet 16 for the third straight season.
