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It’s a different week, but it’s the same story for Tennessee. The Volunteers are coming off of a big win and are in desperate need of some consistency, which is something that has eluded them for a few weeks now. Last week, a loss to Ole Miss followed up a win against Kansas. How will they react tonight against Georgia?
The Bulldogs are Tennessee’s new opponent tonight following a schedule swap due to Florida’s COVID concerns. Georgia opened conference play with an 0-4 mark, but have climbed back to 5-6 thanks to three consecutive wins.
“They’re terrific,” Rick Barnes said of Tom Crean’s Bulldogs. “I think they’ve done a really great job of getting out in transition and playing. They’ve had really good point guard play, in terms of having a very hard player to defend because of his speed and quickness. They get ball screens in different actions. They’ll play some zone. They play man-to-man, but they’ll also go to their 2-3 zone that they have and mix it up that way. I think it’s like most teams. As the season goes on, coaches and players get to know each other better and are starting to figure out what might work and what might not work. I think they’ve won three in a row now and they’re playing as well as anybody in our league.”
Per KenPom’s numbers, Georgia operates at the 26th fastest pace in D1. The Bulldogs rank 90th in overall efficiency, while Tennessee checks in at No. 12.
It’s going to be interesting to see what Keon Johnson and Jaden Springer do to follow up their coming out party at Rupp over the weekend. It almost felt like a changing of the guard type of moment, but we’ll find out for sure tonight at Thompson-Boling Arena.
Gameday Information
Location: Knoxville, Tennessee
Tip-off time: 8 p.m. ET
TV Channel: ESPN2
Streaming: Watch ESPN
Radio: Vol Network
Odds: Tennessee -12.5