FAU isn't fretting Tennessee basketball's physicality – so get ready to rumble | Estes

NEW YORK – Up here in the Big Apple, it’s getting juicy, y’all.

Some pregame vibes are boring or playful. That wasn't either on Wednesday. It felt pugilistic, and not just because of the setting, though the tenor of comments did resemble a pre-fight boxing weigh-in at the famed Madison Square Garden.

One side, from the big conference, eagerly confirmed that, yeah, what you've heard is true: Tennessee basketball really is that tenacious on the court.

And in the other corner, the mid-major, not impressed in the slightest.

“We know Tennessee is physical,” Florida Atlantic forward Giancarlo Rosado said, “but we ain’t worried about that.”

FAU center Vladislav Goldin: “I don’t think we’re going to see something we’ve never seen before.”

FAU guard Alijah Martin referred to his undersized team as “a bunch of pit bulls and rottweilers.” He said, “Coach already said it's going to be like a street fight.”

Sure is getting fun, eh? But honestly, Thursday night’s Sweet 16 game between fourth-seeded Tennessee (25-10) and ninth-seeded Florida Atlantic (33-3) was going to be an intriguing matchup anyway, just because these teams are nothing like one another.

The Owls spread the floor and shoot a bunch of 3-pointers, abandoning mid-range offense. In that way, their style is actually more like, say, Alabama. But their words Wednesday, well, had a whiff of WWE. And by that, I mean they said the Vols will "want to wrestle." (Goldin's words)

It was one of many lines of late – including one by FAU's coach (we'll get to that in a moment) – that implied the Vols' physical play tended to cross the line as dirty.

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A lot of what the Owls said, to be fair, wasn’t disrespectful to Tennessee as much as it was FAU sticking up for itself, an outwardly feisty attitude for a feisty underdog that knows it earned its place here.

“People underestimate us because of our size,” FAU guard Nick Boyd said, “but a lot of people don't understand that when they get out there with us, it's a different feel, and it's a different intensity.”

Bulletin-board material? Perhaps.

I don't think the Owls cared, though.

This is genuinely a confident bunch from South Florida, and I think it was bowing up after figuring out that this is a matchup dripping with machismo – and that's mostly because of the reputation emanating from the other locker room.

Tennessee has prided itself on brawny defense and “muddy” games all season, but all that reached a new level after Saturday’s 65-52 victory over Duke in the second round.

Assistant coach Justin Gainey got credit for hyping up players pregame by telling them to drag the Blue Devils into the mud, where they didn't want to be. UT’s program liked this theme so much that it’s quoted in huge letters on the back cover of the media packet distributed to media in New York. Inside, the second note includes this line: “In the words of reporters, Tennessee ‘bullied,’ ‘punked’ and ‘battered’ the Blue Devils.”

When we’re talking about checks being written for behinds to cash in New York, FAU isn’t alone.

“Yeah, we are tough. We are physical,” Vols guard Jahmai Mashack said. “And if you're going to come here (and face us), it's going to be a battle. But basketball, it's not a soft sport. It's not a pat-on-the-back type of sport. It's tough. It's hard.”

And then a mic drop from Mashack:

“You play games in the SEC, you'll know that.”

Obviously, FAU doesn’t play in the SEC. Neither does Louisiana or Duke, the teams Tennessee beat in the tournament to get here, holding each to poor offensive performances and fewer than 60 points.

On the heels of that UT-Duke game, FAU coach Dusty May closed his press conference after the Owls’ second-round victory by saying he was going to “study Australian rugby rules” to get ready for the rough-and-tumble Vols.

It was a good line. Would have been even better if he’d said, “Australian Rules football.” May corrected that Wednesday and walked back his light-hearted quip, but the impression remained the same on Tennessee’s end – it implied dirty play, same as others in the wake of the Duke game.

“Just because people don't think that we're supposed to be here, they see it as not being called fairly or whatever,” Vols forward Tobe Awaka said. “I think it's definitely added motivation.”

Let’s hope the basketball Thursday is as entertaining as the chatter on Wednesday.

I wonder, do pit bulls and rottweilers even like mud?

Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Gentry_Estes.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee basketball, FAU ready to rumble in Sweet 16 of March Madness