Former Texas coach Rick Barnes comes back to Austin today as the Longhorns take on the no. 18 Tennessee Volunteers.
Rick Barnes is one of the reasons Texas basketball has had high expectations, amongst a confluence of other factors. He led them to a Final Four behind the talents of TJ Ford. He recruited and developed Kevin Durant. He led them to two additional Elite Eight appearances as in 2006 and 2008, and won 402 games, a program record. He took them to 16 tournaments in 17 years. He was and is the gold standard of Texas basketball coaches, and has continued his success with the Vols in Knoxville. He will receive a warm welcome in Austin, as he should. The guy is a Longhorn legend.
Despite this, his Tennessee team is no joke. Ranked 18th in the country, this is another Quad-1 opportunity for Texas, as they have four more in a row coming up. This is a stretch that is going to define the season for the Longhorns, and getting one over on their former HC would be a great way to start the streak.
Here's Tennessee's starting lineup.
Tennessee boasts a top-40 scoring defense in the country at 63.1 points allowed per game, are top 15 in both assists and steals per game, and top 45 in blocks per game. They do a lot of things well defensively, and on offense, they move the ball pretty well and create open looks, especially Kennedy Chandler, their star freshman guard, who is a bonafide first-round pick. He's extremely quick and athletic, and is a crafty finisher around the rim.
Vescovi is the Vols' leading scorer, and can shoot the lights out, just shy of 40% from three on the season. They're gonna have to watch him on switches, because that's when defensive lapses happen that allow for open shots.
Here's Texas' starting lineup.
What Texas needs to do to win today:
• Initiate offense through the forwards.
Against TCU, Texas was initiating offense through Timmy Allen and Tre Mitchell, which led to lots of points and open shots. Mitchell had a season-high five assists, making passes from the elbow and finding cutting players on backdoor cuts which led to easy baskets. Allen was taking the ball up the court, allowing Marcus Carr and the other guards to play off ball. Texas has three shooting guards in Ramey, Jones, and Carr, or at least that's what their skillsets are. If this team wants to score against an elite defense, they're going to have to continue to do what they did against the Horned Frogs.
• Try to replicate the shooting performance against TCU.
I mean this particularly from three, where Texas went 8/18. If they can shoot almost as well as that, they can win this game. They also shot 44.6% from the field overall, which will get it done against most teams. I'm not expecting this level of efficiency against Tennessee with better athletes, but if they can manage to perform at this level at home, they have a chance to take this one home.
• Rebound.
Against one of the best rebounding teams in the nation, Texas managed to out-perform TCU 15-9 on the offensive glass and 41-31 overall. To win today, the Longhorns need to stay in good position like they did on Tuesday. Basically, they just need to replicate their entire performance, because they did everything right in Fort Worth.
Still, I think this is going to be a tough matchup for Texas in the battle of "who is the real orange UT." They could totally win, but I think Barnes takes this one back to Knoxville due to Tennessee's defensive prowess.
Prediction:
ML: Tennessee +150
Spread: Tennessee +4
O/U: over 126.5
