Vols guard Jordan Gainey confirms suspicion about Tennessee's performance against Wofford in opening round of NCAA Tournament

The Tennessee Vols advanced past the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday night via their 77-62 win against the Wofford Terriers. 

Tennessee, as a No. 2 seed in the tourney, was expected to cruise past Wofford in the opening round. The Terriers, however, didn't make it easy, playing inspired basketball for 40 minutes against the Volunteers. 

"I don't think that Wofford came into this game one bit concerned about us being an SEC team, again, because I watched them come into our building a year ago, and they didn't flinch and I knew they wouldn't flinch today," said Vols head coach Rick Barnes after the game. "We had a lead, and I didn't feel comfortable at any point in time until the very end because they fought. They fought us in Knoxville and I knew they would do it here today." 

A big reason why Tennessee was able to stay focused and prevent Wofford from pulling off the upset (or at least coming close to pulling off the upset) is because the Vols were still "mad" about their 86-77 loss to the Florida Gators in the SEC Tournament championship game. 

"We watched the (Florida) film, we were mad about it, and we had to take it out on somebody," said Tennessee guard Jordan Gainey after the win against Wofford. "And we're not done. We have the winner (UCLA) of this next game here. And we're still fueling for it. If we want to see them (Florida) again -- we do want to see them again, it's just a chip on our shoulders."