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BASKETBALL Middle Tennessee (9-3) @ #1Tennessee (11-0) (SECN), 6PM, Monday, December 23, 2024

Checked the UT message board last night, & today. Nothing about the game. Only comments of concern on fan page is team health. Injuries could have their roster down to 8 available scholarships until a couple more players get healthy.
 
DraftKings has UT a 25 point favorite with a O/U of 142.5. In essence they're calling for a score around 83-58.
Everything depends on our guards tomorrow. If we shoot from the field & free throw line as we did against Lipscomb the prediction could be accurate, eespecially playing against probably the best overall D in the nation. UT only giving up 34% shooting from the field.
Big concern, we've shone to be a team that plays in spurts. We can look great for 8-10 minutes then hit a drought.
Positive for the Raiders. This is as healthy as we've been all year, & having played 3 games recently we won't be rusty come game time.
 
Dec 10, 1999, a couple friends and I decided to drive over to knoxville to watch us play them on a whim as a student.

Odds were similar to this game.

The volunteers ended up barely winning by one point. 77-78.

Games where you have a little chance can end up being nice surprises. Glad I made the trip to St. Louis in 16 or I would have missed that win over the Spartans.

Folks heading to the game tomorrow? Expecting to lose by 20-30 but you never know what will happen.
 
From Vol Nation, 4 star sophomore Cameron Carr hit the portal 2 hours ago. According to the sight UT is down to 8 scholarship players. Carr was scheduled to come back in 2 weeks while recovering from injury.
We should use Lady Vols strategy. Rotate players every 5-6 minutes & try to run as much as possible. Try to tire them out by the 30 minute mark.
 
I'm a little surprised there isn't a little more excitement for this game. we've had as good of a non conference run as anyone could have hoped and playing the #1 team in the country(Tennessee no less). should be a good game. boys will be up for it. sleepy game for UT, schools out, 2 days before Xmas, mid major program coming into town..... just saying. crazier things have happened.
 
You taking the Blue Raiders and the points?

Not a chance. They have been blowing out inferior teams lately and I could easily see this getting ugly if our shots don't fall early.

Game will go one or two ways in my opinion.

We come out making shots and playing with great rhythm & confidence and keep it within single digits (unlikely) OR we can't buy a bucket, get smoked in every statistically category, and a resurgence of turnovers and nonexistent transition defense remanifests itself (likely)
 
Some late notes I would normally type up the morning of. Tough contest ahead as I'm sure it will be facing the #1-ranked team in the country for good reason. I watched the Vols previous home matchup against WCU and had some keys for today's matchup.

Their defense is special. Everything considered with their opponent (4-7 WCU), they shot a lot of threes early in the shot clock and were willing to die by the three point shot, as they did very quickly. Since we know the gun-slinging approach doesn't work, you have to be methodical. The old saying of "the best man defense, looks like a zone" that can be applied to this team. They close off penetration, rotate well, and will be one step ahead. MTSU will need to hit some big shots to keep themselves within distance and a majority of them will be contested.

Tennessee's biggest offensive threat is Chaz Lanier (#2, 6'5" SF) who is a special scorer. He averaged nearly 20 ppg with 44% 3FG at North Florida in his senior season and hasn't missed a beat since going to Knoxville. Zakai Zeigler (#5, 5'9" PG) has the best vision you will see in CBB with 7.6 apg (good for 5th in the country), and has seen his turnover rate drop into his senior season. In years past his aggressive play has been an issue but he has cleaned it up in the early going. I wasn't impressed with their frontcourt, especially Igor Milicic (#7, 6'10") who McDevitt should be familiar with when he played at Charlotte. Milicic was held to 9 and 3 points in their two games dating back to 2023. However, the front court is very big and will require a team effort on the boards.

There is no room for error in a game like this, go figure. How can you give yourself a chance? Play solid three-point defense like you have all season, rebound, play your tempo, and rebound some more. Luckily rebounding was tremendous last Thursday, but if you speed yourself up and play desperate offense, it will get out of hand quickly.

Tennessee hasn't played a tough non-conference. After Syracuse (#109 KP, W 96-70), this is their toughest non-conference home game. I would like to think sub-20, sub-15 is a moral victory given they're a 25 point underdog.
 
half


MT 40
utk 34


Team Comparison
STATISTICMTutk
FG%50%41%
FGs16-3211-27
3FG%38%45%
3FGs6-165-11
FT%50%64%
FTs2-47-11
TOs37
PtsOffTO52
TotReb1619
DefReb1415
Off Reb24
2ndChPts27
BenchPts233
PtsPaint1812
FstBkPt103
Blocks11
Steals41
Assts39
Times Tied:1
Lead Chg:1
LeadTime2:3515:16
 
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final

82-64


Team Comparison
STATISTICMTutk
FG%41%48%
FGs24-5927-56
3FG%30%45%
3FGs9-3010-22
FT%50%78%
FTs7-1418-23
TOs1111
PtsOffTO911
TotReb2940
DefReb2332
Off Reb68
2ndChPts89
BenchPts3117
PtsPaint2632
FstBkPt1311
Blocks24
Steals76
Assts519
Times Tied:4
Lead Chg:2
LeadTime8:4027:37
 
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