Tennessee looking to rebound in the Lone Star State
The Tennessee Basketball Volunteers suffered a historically bad loss to the Florida Gators on Tuesday night down in Gainesville. The Vols shot a miserable 13.8% from 3 and 21.4% overall, and couldn’t keep up with a talented Florida squad on their home court. Needless to say you won’t beat anyone with a shooting performance that terrible, but the silver lining is it is almost impossible for the Vols to shoot that poorly again the rest of the season. Furthermore, no matter how embarassing and painful a single game is it only counts as one loss. Rick Barnes is a hall of fame coach and I am fully confident he will have his team ready to bounce back down in Austin tomorrow night.
The Texas Longhorns have started SEC play 0-2 so Tennessee will once again be heading into a hostile road arena facing a team hell bent on getting their first SEC win. Texas suffered a 20-point loss to Texas A&M last Saturday and came up short against 2nd ranked Auburn Tuesday night. The Longhorns come in with the 45th ranked offensive efficiency and the 42nd ranked defensive efficiency according to KenPom. Texas is the SEC’s most efficient 3-point shooting team as they shoot 40% as a team from beyond the arc. They also feature one of the country’s best freshman in Tre Johnson. Johnson averages 18 points a game and is hyper efficient as he shoots 46% from the floor, 85% from the free throw line, and 40% from beyond the arc. Mashack and Ziegler will definitely have their hands full keeping him in check throughout the game. Texas also features a strong presence in the front court as well in Kansas State transfer Arthur Kaluma. Kaluma nearly averages a double-double with 15 points and 8 rebounds per game and is a threat from beyond the arc as well shooting a staggering 52% from 3. Tennessee got pushed around in the paint on Tuesday night and will be heading for another defeat quickly if they don’t do a better job in that area against a player as good as Kaluma.
Texas will be desperate for a win but Tennessee will be looking to prove something as well after the debacle against Florida. This is a toss up in my eyes but at the end of the day I feel that defense will travel for the Vols. Tennessee holding Florida to 73 points is an impressive feat that got overlooked because of the horrendous offense the Vols displayed. Furthermore, Tennessee defends the 3 point shot better than anyone in the SEC so far. Lastly, I think Tennessee will ascend back to the mean shooting wise. There is just no mathematical way the Vols are going to be that bad again at the object of the game (putting the orange round thing through the hoop).
Prediction
Tennessee - 78
Texas - 69