Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes wasn’t interested in talking about how his team “played dirty” against Duke on Saturday.
“I think playing good, hard basketball, it’s something nice to look at,” Barnes said, (first transcribed by Saturday Down South). “I know our guys played hard. I know Duke played hard. From my perspective, I didn’t see anything dirty from either team.”
The accusations of Barnes’ team playing dirty came from fans and media members as there were several questionable moments from the game against Duke.
For example, Doug Gottlieb wasn’t happy with how Uros Plasvic wasn’t called for a foul on Kyle Filipowski.
I think my favorite part is the idea that he doesn’t think it was a foul… comedy pic.twitter.com/P46orjdwaH
— Doug Gottlieb (@GottliebShow) March 18, 2023
In the end, the Vols were able to get the win and advance to the Sweet 16 where they will play the Owls of Florida Atlantic.
They will play at 9 p.m. ET on Thursday night with the winner advancing to the Elite Eight.