Tennessee into Sweet 16 after bringing Duke 'into the mud'

ORLANDO — Tennessee is headed to the Sweet 16 because they love playing in the mud.

That's the Vols' term for the tough, physical, and sometimes ugly style of basketball they play. They don't apologize or make excuses for it. It's who they are.

«That's what we do,» forward Olivier Nkamhoua said. «We're a tough, hard-nosed team. That's how we play everybody.»

Duke coach Jon Scheyer talked about that on Friday heading into Saturday's second-round NCAA Tournament matchup at the Amway Center. But knowing it was coming didn't make it any easier, and the Vols battered the Blue Devils throughout their 65-52 victory.

«Knowing that they had a lot of freshmen, we knew that if we come in and apply more pressure and be tough and physical, then they would have to deal with it,» Nkamhoua said. «What we were saying before the game the whole time is we were going to bring them into the mud with us and make them play a tough, hard-nosed game and see if they were ready for it.»

They weren't.

The box score doesn't accurately portray just how physical things were. Duke forward Kyle Filipowski had to leave the game for a few moments in the first half after taking an elbow in the face from Tennessee forward Jonas Aidoo that left a mark on his left cheek that was still visible post-game.

Tennessee held Duke to just 21 first-half points, the fewest first-half points the Blue Devils have scored in an NCAA Tournament game, and their defense held the Blue Devils scoreless for a stretch at the end of the first half and into the second that lasted 6:58.

«They did a great job with making passes difficult,» Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. «They contested, they switched a lot. It was hard to run our offense.… You have to really work for everything in a