Vol forward Jonas Aidoo. Photo via Tennessee Athletics.
Tennessee basketball hosts rival Alabama in a pivotal SEC matchup at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center on Saturday afternoon.
The Vols are riding a two-game winning streak following last week’s loss at Mississippi State while Alabama is one of two unbeaten teams in SEC play and are looking for what would be their biggest win of the season.
Here’s everything to know about the rivalry matchup.
“They’re the No. 1 offensive team in the country. And Mark Sears is, boy, he’s playing great basketball. They’ve got a lot of really good shooters around him. And the thing that has impressed me is I think they’ve gotten so much better, like most teams normally do. Their defense, very efficient for that too. But the way they play, it’s, as you know, Nate’s always done a great job with his team, putting him in the right spots to be effective and be efficient. And he’s done it with this team.”
On what Alabama’s Mark Sears does to be such an effective scorer
“He can score it. You’ve got to find him early because he can take it and go. Really does a great job of squaring his shoulders to the rim. And (he) finds people. He can score himself and he knows that they’ve got those shooters in the corners for the most part. And I like the fact, I think he puts the ball where it needs to be.”
On Tennessee trying to stop an Alabama team that doesn’t do much in the midrange, how to try to force Alabama into midrange offense
“It’s hard to do that because again, Nate has them so well coached and drilled. They know what they want and what they’re looking for and you knyou can’t give, you’ve got so many guys, you can’t give them any daylight because they shoot it quick and get their feet set quic. And obviously they practice that. And so if you go to sleep for just a little bit, somebody can get a good look at it.”
Tennessee hosts an Alabama team that analytics see as one of the best in the country despite them not being in the AP Poll. The Crimson Tide lost five games in the pre conference slate but those losses came against solid teams including Ohio State (neutral), Clemson (home), Purdue (neutral), Creighton (away) and Arizona (Phoenix).
The Crimson Tide have maybe turned the corner and are playing better as of late. They survived a tight game at Mississippi State last Saturday but have otherwise played a soft conference schedule to date.
Alabama can score the ball better than anyone in the country. Its defense was abysmal early in the season and is playing better as of late. But still has a lot of shortcomings and isn’t great. This will be a tough task for Tennessee but I trust the Vols at home more than an Alabama team that has real defensive shortcomings.
