After an embarrassing 73-43 loss at Florida, the No. 1 Tennessee Volunteers will travel to Austin, Texas, to face the Texas Longhorns. Read more for a full Tennessee vs Texas prediction and preview.
No. 1 Tennessee Volunteers will look to get back on track as they continue the tail end of their two-game road trip on Saturday and travel to Austin, Texas, to play the Texas Longhorns in their third conference game of the season, live from the Moody Center. Under Rick Barnes’ leadership, the Vols have a 2-1 record versus the Longhorns.
General Information:
Teams: Tennessee (14-1, 1-1) and Texas (11-4, 0-2)
Tip-Off: 6 p.m. EST
Watch: ESPN
Latest on Texas basketball:
After a thrilling late rally against No. 2 Auburn on Tuesday ended in defeat, Texas basketball will have another chance at a signature win when they play No. 1 Tennessee.
Arthur Kaluma, a senior forward who transferred from Kansas State to Texas during the offseason, nearly forced the Longhorns to an unexpected comeback with a career-high 34 points. He shot 12-of-16 from the field, 5-of-6 from behind the arc, and 5-of-7 from the stripe, adding eight rebounds, two assists, and two blocks to his total.
Assisting Kaluma was junior guard Jordan Pope and freshman guard Tre Johnson. Pope finished with 19 points and three steals on a below-average 4-of-11 shooting but an outstanding 11-of-11 shooting from the free throw line. Johnson totaled 11 points on 5-of-13.
The trio of Johnson, Kaluma, and Pope have led Texas thus far this season. Kaluma averages 15.1 points and 8.3 rebounds on 55/52/78 shooting splits; Pope adds 12.1 points per game on 47/42/46 shooting splits.
Standout guard Tre Johnson has opened many eyes thus far in his freshman campaign. He averages 18.4 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 2.3 assists on 46/40/85 shooting splits.
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Tre Johnson’s stats have been compared to Kevin Durant’s, who had a stellar freshman season at Texas in 2006–07 under Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes.
The 6-foot-6 Johnson is an extremely effective three-level scorer and has four games with 20 or more points this season. Barnes described Johnson as “explosive” and “one of the very best players in the country.”
Collectively, the Longhorns score 82.7 points per game, which is the eighth-best average in the SEC. Additionally, Texas is the SEC’s best 3-point shooting team by percentage, knocking down 40.2%. Head coach Rodney Terry’s squad is one of 11 teams in the nation knocking down more than 40% of their threes.
Nationally, the Longhorns are also one of the best teams at handling the ball. They have the sixth-best turnover rate in the nation, averaging only 9.3 turnovers per contest.
Noticeably, Texas’ bench hasn’t had much of an impact in its first two SEC games, and guard Chendall Weaver’s hip injury against Auburn won’t help.
The bench only contributed 10 points and seven rebounds during the Texas A&M defeat. This pattern continued in the defeat against Auburn as the bench scored nine points, pulled down four rebounds, and committed four turnovers.
Latest on Tennessee basketball:
Tennessee basketball recently suffered a historical defeat versus Florida. The 30-point, 73-43 loss was the third-largest a top-ranked team has been beaten by in Division I history.
The Vols would finish the game shooting 4-of-29 from three and 12-of-56 overall. Tennessee’s field-goal shooting of 21.4% was the worst ever recorded by a No. 1 ranked team and the worst Tennessee had in a game under tenth-year head coach Rick Barnes. Additionally, the final total of 43 points is the lowest in head coach Rick Barnes’ time at Tennessee.
Coach Barnes alluded to his team losing the physical and mental battle and losing their poise as reasons why they lost. The Volunteers’ lack of depth and scoring options were exposed in this matchup as well.
No one could get it going for the Vols. Standout guard Chaz Lanier scored 10 points on 18.8% shooting from the field. Zakai Zeigler finished with 10 points on 33.3% shooting and added three turnovers and just one assist after averaging eight-plus before the game. Igor Milicic Jr. had a quiet night totaling eight points, and Jordan Gainey was quiet as well ending his night with seven points on 09.1 % shooting.
Barnes has coached against Texas before, as the two teams split two games in the 2022 and 2023 Big 12/SEC Challenge and Tennessee defeated Texas 62-58 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in Charlotte last season.
From 1998 to 2015, Barnes served as the head coach of Texas for 17 seasons. Despite leaving Austin nearly a decade ago, his influence is still felt by the current coaching staff and the program’s record books.
Barnes finished his period at Texas with a record of 582-402 and became Texas’ all-time leader in wins. In 2003, he guided the Longhorns to 16 NCAA Tournament berths and their only Final Four in the modern era.
The Vols lead the SEC in both scoring defense (57.1 points allowed per game) and opponents’ field-goal percentage (35.3) and continue to rank among the top three in the country in terms of adjusted defensive efficiency, per KenPom. Tennessee will attempt to impede the Longhorns’ attack with their top-ranked defense.
The Volunteers will play the Texas Longhorns on Sunday evening with the goal of recovering and demonstrating once more why they are one of the best teams in the country.
Tennessee vs Texas prediction: Vols by 8 (72-64)
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