Tennessee basketball will fly to Nassau, Bahamas, to play Virginia in the Baha Mar Championship.
The Tennessee men’s basketball team will play the Virginia Cavaliers in the Baha Mar Championship on Thursday night following a successful home game against the Austin Peay Governors, which ended with a 103-68 victory for the Volunteers. More than ten years have passed since the Vols and Cavaliers last faced off, with Tennessee defeating Virginia 87-52 in Knoxville in December 2013.
General Information:
Teams: Tennessee (4-0) and Virginia (3-0)
Tip-Off: 9:30 p.m. EST
Watch: CBS Sports Network
Listen: Sirius XM 380
Latest on Virginia basketball:
Virginia basketball is coming off a 70-60 victory over Villanova on Friday. The Cavaliers rained threes all games, going 14-25 (56%) from behind the arc. Isaac McKneely tied a career-high with six threes and didn’t miss a single 3-point attempt. Junior guard Andrew Rohde and freshman forward Jacob Cofie scored 13 and 12 points, respectively.
As part of their new offense, the Cavaliers are shooting a lot more threes than in the past. Virginia shot less than 18 threes per game last year; so far this season, they’re shooting almost 22 per game.
The Cavaliers’ 44.6% clip from behind the arc ranks ninth in the country. It’ll be a thing to watch as Virginia plays more difficult opponents, such as Tennessee tonight.
The scoring is something to keep an eye on. Against Villanova, McKneely scored 23 points, but no other starter scored more than eight. Yes, the contributions from Rohde and Cofie were great, but Virginia needs more production — particularly from junior forward Elijah Saunders and sophomore forward T.J. Power — if the Cavaliers want to be one of the best teams in the ACC this year.
This will be a matchup between two of the slowest teams in the country. Tennessee ranks 223rd in possessions per game, while Virginia ranks second to last. Against a better Tennessee team, expect the ‘Hoos to keep it close initially but for the Volunteers to pull away in the second half.
Latest on Tennessee basketball:
After an impressive 103-68 victory over the Austin Peay Governors, Tennessee basketball improves to 4-0 on the season. The Vols led for 155:32 of a possible 160 minutes and fell behind for just 1:34 in their opening four games. The Volunteers also lead the nation with a 58.1 percent field-goal clip.
Tennessee has been recently led by the outstanding play of senior guard and reigning SEC Defensive Player of the Year Zakai Zeigler and Charlotte transfer and former Cavalier Igor Miličić Jr. Zakai is currently averaging 15.5 points on 54.1% shooting from the field, 47.6% shooting from three, and 85.7% shooting from the free throw line. He also leads the SEC and is eighth in the nation with 7.8 assists a game. Miličić is averaging a career-high 14.0 points per game to go along with 6.3 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game. In Tennessee’s last two games, Igor Milicic Jr., who began his career at Virginia, has averaged 20.5 points and 9.5 rebounds.
Virginia is the second of four ACC schools the Volunteers will face in non-conference play. Defensively, the Volunteers will look to stop the Cavaliers’ hot three-point shooting and speed their offense up to force turnovers.
On Thursday night in the Bahamas, the Tennessee Volunteers will try to overcome the Virginia Cavaliers and advance to the title game against the winner of Baylor and St. John’s.
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