For the fourth time in program history, Tennessee will be taking on college basketball powerhouse Kansas when the two face-off on Friday night in Brooklyn, New York.
No. 5 Tennessee (4-0) will take on No. 2 Kansas (4-0) in the NIT Season Tip-Off Finals. The Vols dispatched Louisville 92-81 on Wednesday, and Kansas fought back from an nine-point deficit at halftime against Marquette to win 77-68. Kansas also took down No. 11 Michigan State 92-87 at the beginning of the season. Friday’s contest will be the first time this season the Vols will have faced a ranked opponent, however.
The Vols are 1-2 all-time against the Jayhawks, but their only win against the storied basketball program was a big one. Tennessee took down No. 1 Kansas 76-68 in Knoxville back on January 10, 2010.
Both teams are led by coaching legends. Bill Self has won 658 games in his 26 years of coaching, and Rick Barnes has won 665 games in 32 years as a head coach. The two faced-off multiple times in the Big 12 when Barnes was still the head coach of Texas, so there’s a history with the two teams’ head coaches.
Here’s everything you need to know about the huge early season match-up between No. 5 Tennessee and No. 2 Kansas when they tip-off at 9:00 PM Eastern tonight.
Deadly from Distance
Louisville kept themselves in the ball game on Wednesday thanks to their three-point shooting. The Vols need to be wary of that again on Friday against Kansas.
The Jayhawks are shooting lights-out from three to start the season. Kansas is shooting 47.3 percent from three as a team, and they’re led by Memphis native Lagerald Vick, who is shooting 62.1 percent from three in four games. He’s made 18 of his 29 three-pointers to start this year.
Freshmen Quentin Grimes and Devon Dotson are also shooting well from deep. Grimes is hitting 52.9 percent of his shots from distance, and Dotson has made 44.4 percent of his threes on the year.
Kansas does a lot pretty well, but they’re one of the best in the country at shooting threes. They rank fourth in the country in three-point shooting percentage, but they don’t jack up a lot of threes despite being really good at it. They rank in the 300s in three-pointers attempted and 207th in threes made this season so far.
The Vols got burned by the three for most of the game against Louisville, but that’s been the only game this season in which UT has had trouble with opponents hitting the three-ball. Tennessee has held teams to 27.1 percent from three this year, the 38th-best percentage in Division I.
Not Very Deep
Kansas has a very good starting lineup. But they don’t have much in terms of bench depth.
Marcus Garrett will likely be the first player off the bench for the Jayhawks, and he’s been productive this season. In 23 minutes per game, the sophomore is averaging 6.3 points 2.8 rebounds, and 2.5 assists. He’s only shooting 28.0 percent from the floor, however.
The only other player on the Jayhawks’ roster averaging more than seven minutes a game off the bench is sophomore guard Charlie Moore. In 16.8 minutes per contest, Moore is averaging two points, 2.3 rebounds, and 1.3 assists while shooting just 25 percent on his field goal attempts.
Kansas’ starting five is a quality starting five, though. Lagerald Vick, Dedric Lawson, Udoka Azubuike, Quentin Grimes, and Devon Dotson have been dangerous to start this season.
Vick is averaging 35.3 minutes per game, and he’s putting his playing time to good use. He leads the team in scoring (20.8 PPG), and he’s a sharpshooter from three. He’s also averaging 4.3 rebounds and 1.8 steals a game. Lawson is averaging nearly a double-double so far this year, scoring 16.3 points and pulling down 9.8 rebounds a game. The Memphis native also dishes out 3.5 assists a game.
Azubuike, a seven-footer, only plays 23 minutes a game as a starter. But he’s been very efficient this season, shooting 66.7 percent from the field while averaging 15.8 points and 6.5 rebounds. The 7-foot, 280-pound behemoth is a force in the paint on defense too, averaging 2.3 blocks a contest. Fouling him might pay off, however, as he’s only making 35 percent of his free throws on the year.
A Good Blend
When you think of teams like Kansas, Kentucky, Duke, and the like, you typically think of them as very young teams with a lot of first and second-year players on the roster. While it’s true that Kansas has a pair of freshmen playing a lot of minutes for them, they actually have a good blend of young superstar power and experience.
Both Grimes and Dotson start for Kansas, and both are true freshmen. But Vick is a senior, and both Lawson and Azubuike are juniors. The Jayhawks’ two key bench players, Marcus Garrett and Charlie Moore, are both sophomores.
Tennessee starts two seniors and three juniors, and their top bench contributor, Lamonte Turner, is also a junior. The Vols clearly have more experience, but Kansas has plenty of experience all their own. And their two starting freshmen were five-stars coming out of high school according to 247Sports.
