College basketball world reacts to Dalton Knecht's latest 39-point outburst

In Tennessee basketball's win over Auburn, Dalton Knecht dropped 39 points to help propel the Vols to a come-from-behind victory.

Down the stretch, Knecht scored 25 points compared to just 21 coming from the Tigers.

This performance caused reactions throughout the world of college basketball.

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On if he just needs to see a shot go in:

"I guess exactly what, (Zakai Zeigler) said, just the basket feels a lot bigger and stuff. My teammates keep feeding me the ball and keep telling me to keep shooting it."

On if there was a shot that he knew it'd be a special night:

"I'd say, after my second foul I hit a three, I felt like if I had one more shot I could let it go. Kind of just started in the first half after I let one go off a hesi. Like (Zeigler) said, the hoop was just huge and I could shoot it."

On what it feels like to be Dalton Knecht:

"Just feeding off the crowd. The crowd gives me a lot of energy and all my teammates, as well, they all feed off the energy of the crowd. It helps when you have a great point guard that keeps giving you the rock and keeps telling you during timeouts to keep shooting it and keep letting it fly. My teammates kept telling me that and telling me to let it fly."

On if there was a point he knew everything would run through Knecht:

"In practice yesterday. What you guys see, I see every day. So it's not really nothing new to me. This is new to everybody else but I see it every day. It's just DK being DK. I'd say in the first half, I remember I called money one time, and he just came off and shot it and I was like ok he's feeling it we got to keep running it."

On Knecht's night:

"We were struggling to score and that had a lot to do with what they were doing. And (Knecht) was struggling from the free-throw line. But he got it going and we just said, hey, we’re going to get it to him and the other guys are ready. Try to get him open and then he’ll make the play and then we got to rebound the ball. But still, with that said, guard them on the other end. We had to try to get some stops. And Johni Broome was awesome, I thought he was terrific tonight and remember what he did. But that’s the performance that Dalton did. I mean what he did in the last about 12 minutes I think was just one of the great performances that I’ve been able to see.”

On how the offense changes with Knecht:

"We have a set where we normally have two guys up, three guys down below, and it’s something that we know that we can go to. But I will tell you this, we changed a little bit. Instead of having him with a chance to come off either side, we moved him over to one side and told both guys to go get him open and really gave him two-thirds of the court to try to get open and get the ball. He did it and then it’s up to him. It’s up to him to make the moves, the shots that he thinks he’s got. And those other guys have to deliver because, offensive end, they were working really hard to take him out and he was trying to use that as a way to get Zakai open. And Zakai made a big three too. And thought (Santiago Vescovi's) lay up there, when that tough shot he forced up, that was a big play. And Dalton was trying to do that, he was trying to get Zakai going downhill, but I think Zakai was so locked in, trying to get him involved. But at the end we were just spacing out and trying to give him room to operate.”

On when they decided to isolate Knecht on Broome:

"Well, we decided that at about the 12 minute mark. You know, it’s because we were struggling and a lot had to do with them and the players know it and we knew we’ve seen him, again, do it at times but it’s just what the game folded into. And we needed him to do it. They were kind of doing it on the other end with Johni trying to get him drawing players toward him and making plays. But there were some high level shot making going on out there and they made some high level shots, too. They had some threes from the corner and it felt, honestly, I’m sure it was a great game to watch, but it was a high level hard fought basketball game."

On if he knew Knecht was capable of this when he came to Tennessee:

"I didn’t know that much about him other than the highlight tape that I saw when the coaches showed me him a couple days before he was coming in. I walked out of here last night at I think 10:30. He was walking back on the court. He deserves what’s happened to him while he’s been here because he’s worked extremely hard. He loves it. He’s a very humble person. I think the fact that we have older guys like we have, for our older guys and people that have been with us to embrace him the way they have, I think it speaks a lot about his humility. And he loves those older guys dearly because he will defer to them all the time if he has to. But they’re the ones that are telling him, ‘Hey, you gotta keep going.’ In the last two weeks, there is no question, no question that I’ve been harder on him in practice than any of the other players out there because I want to see more from him on the defensive end. Because again, Bruce (Pearl), other teams, they go at him trying to get him out of the game and try to put him in positions where he has to pick up fouls. I don’t want to see that happen. I still think with whatever time we have left, I want him to leave here knowing that we didn’t stop coaching, did try to help get him better, but his work ethic is what put him where he is today. In some ways, he’s a young 22-year-old guy and I’m telling you, if he has time to continue to develop, like I think he can, he’s got a great future."

On how to stop Knecht:

"I mean, we sent the double a couple times, we got a turnover. We sent a double and one time he passed out of it and they got a dunk. I think we felt like we had guys that could guard him. And when Tennessee wins, they typically win when everybody contributes, right? And tonight he sort of dispelled that."

On if Knecht is SEC Player of the Year:

"What I’ve always done, and what I’ve always believed in, is I’ve voted for the best player on the best team. So if Tennessee wins the league, he’ll get my vote for sure. If Alabama wins the league, I’m going to vote for Mark Sears. I typically just have always voted for the best player on the best team."

On where Knecht stands in Tennessee history:

"Well, with his size and the versatility, I just can’t think of anybody quite like it. But just like anything, like what we’re trying to do at Auburn is, if they win the league, if they advance in the tournament, he’ll have a chance to go down as one of the all-time greats. At the end of the day, he knows that as a great individual if this team can make a run, then they’ll be talking about him for a long time."

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