Tennessee Basketball: The key to victory against Florida

The top-ranked Tennessee Basketball Volunteers are now the only remaining unbeaten team in the country. The Vols opened SEC play with a dominant win over the Arkansas Razorbacks. Excellent performances from Chaz Lanier, Igor Milicic, and Zakai Zeigler garnered worthy praise, but the most impressive thing about Tennessee Basketball is the 40 minutes of terror a Rick Barnes defense is capable of in each game. Adou Thiero, Boogie Fland, and Zvonimir Ivisic will score a lot of points in SEC play this year, but against the Vols on Saturday, they combined for only 21 points.

Anyone who steps on the floor for Rick Barnes is a good defender, but the undisputed MVP in that aspect for Tennessee is Jahmai Mashack. Mashack guarded Adou Thiero for most of the game and the Hog’s leading scorer only mustered 6 points. Even more impressive is that Thiero only attempted 7 shots. Hopefully, Mashack and the rest of the team can carry that same defensive effort down to Gainesville tomorrow night.

The Florida Gators will be coming off a high-scoring loss at Kentucky, and with Tennessee being the top-ranked team in the country, motivation will not be hard to find in the Florida locker room. Florida boasts some of the country's best offensive guard play with Will Richard, Walter Clayton,  Jr., and Alijah Martin being their top three scorers. Clayton is coming off a 33-point performance in Rupp Arena and Martin wasn’t far behind with a 26-point performance. Stopping that Tandem will be priority number one for the Vols in a hostile road environment. Getting into a track meet with the Gators would play right into their hands. Tennessee must go down there and make this game disgusting and borderline unwatchable. Tennessee ranks #1 in defensive efficiency according to KenPom while the Gators rank 36th in that department. Meanwhile, the Gators rank 3rd in offensive efficiency according to KenPom while the Vols rank 20th. It doesn’t take a Rhodes scholar to figure out where Tennessee has the advantage. I’m not saying Tennessee couldn’t go down there and go blow for blow in a high-scoring game, but a good slop fest is their best chance at winning.

Play good defense, drive to the basket, and hit free throws. This is normally the formula for winning on the road in the SEC. Tennessee is fully capable of doing all 3 things tomorrow night in Gainesville and I think they will. Give me the Vols by 5 in a low-scoring affair and give me Jahmai Mashack and Zakai Zeigler to prove once again why they are the best defensive tandem taking the court this year in the SEC.

Prediction

Tennessee - 67

Florida - 62