Charles Barkley was very impressed with Tennessee’s win over Duke.

The Arkansas Razorbacks took down 1-seed Kansas — the defending national champion, mind you — and still Barkley thought the best performance of Saturday’s second-round action belonged to the Volunteers.

“What Tennessee did to Duke was so impressive,” Barkley said during CBS’s studio show coverage of the NCAA Tournament. “They physically dominated on the defensive end. Tennessee was awesome.”

Duke’s Kyle Filipowski said after the game the Vols were the most physical team they’d faced all year.

The Blue Devils took a 10-game winning streak into the matchup; they were one of the hottest teams in the field and a trendy pick to advance deep into the tournament. Tennessee was the buzzsaw that stopped the Blue Devils early.

Duke shot 43% for the game, but it only made 2 of its final 11 shots from the field and none of its final 5. Tennessee held the Blue Devils to just 21 first-half points. It limited Jeremy Roach, who’d scored 23 in back-to-back games, to just 13 points and completely locked down the paint.

With the win, the Vols have to feeling good about their chances to keep dancing for a bit longer. Fairleigh Dickinson knocked off 1-seed Purdue on Friday, setting up an 8-16 matchup with Florida Atlantic on Sunday. UT gets the winner. And after what the Vols did to Duke, there might not be a more intimidating team left in the East Region.