Tennessee Vols vs. Texas Longhorns Basketball Preview Graphic
Maybe THIS is the game they figure it out...
Tennessee vs. Texas | 9:00 pm EST Tuesday, Jan. 6 | ESPN2
Tennessee leads the series 7-4 all-time, including 6-2 in the last eight and 4-0 over the last three years.
Both the Vols and Longhorns lost their SEC openers last weekend, with Texas losing to Mississippi State 98-101 in OT, and Tennessee dropping a 75-86 game in Fayetteville.
Tennessee’s loss was particularly disappointing. Winning on the road in the SEC is tough, but the Vols had a three-point lead with 10 minutes left, like they had a lead with 11 minutes left against Illinois, like they had a lead against Syracuse with 10 minutes left, like they had a lead against Kansas with 10 minutes left. This UT team seems to melt in the last quarter of game time, and they’ve been doing it since November, and it has to stop if they are ever going to reach anything near their potential this season.
And it’s not just the missed free throws—which is a huge probelm. It’s a general sloppiness with the ball. Tennessee is bottom-third nationally in turnover % at 18.2%. That’s nearly one-in-five possessions where the Vols just give the ball away. Sure, they’re a great offensive rebounding team and give themselves a tone of second chances that way. But you almost have to create second chances if you’re just going to yeet the ball into the void every few trips down the court.
At what point do you declare the Nate Ament experiment a failure? Ament was easily outplayed at Arkansas by fellow freshman Darius Acuff. In fact, if you look at the top players in the freshman class across the country, a lot of them are playing really well. Ament is top-10 in defensive rebounds, defensive win shares, and defensive rating among SEC players, so I guess there’s that.
9:00 tip off? No way in hell I’m staying up for the end of this game (I’ll probably stay up for the end of the game).
