No. 1 Tennessee basketball vs Texas: Prediction, picks, injury updates, odds

[ad_1]

Tennessee basketball is looking to get back on track at Texas.

The No. 1 Vols (14-1, 1-1 SEC) play the Longhorns (11-4, 0-2) at the Moody Center on Saturday (6 p.m. ET, ESPN). UT lost for the first time this season Tuesday, falling 73-43 at Florida.

Here is what to know about the matchup:

Texas makes 3-pointers count

Texas is the SEC’s best 3-point shooting team by percentage, knocking down 40.2%. The Longhorns are one of 11 teams in the nation knocking down more than 40% of their threes.

The Longhorns don’t take many 3-pointers, though. They have attempted the fewest threes in the SEC with 311.

Forward Arthur Kaluma leads Texas, making 52.4% of his 3-point attempts. Freshman guard Tre Johnson and junior guard Jordan Pope have made 33 and 30 threes, respectively. Both are hitting better than 40%.

Texas’ Tre Johnson is one of the nation’s best freshmen

Tennessee coach Rick Barnes has noticed a comparison being made between Tre Johnson’s stats and those of Kevin Durant, who had a huge freshman season in 2006-07 under Barnes at Texas.

The 6-foot-6 Johnson is averaging 18.4 points and has four 20-point games. Barnes called Johnson “explosive” and “one of the very best players in the country.”

Texas Longhorns guard Tre Johnson (20) drives the ball against Auburn Tigers guard Chad Baker-Mazara (10) in the second half of an NCAA College Basketball game at Moody Center, Austin, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025.

“I see oftentimes people are putting his numbers up against (Kevin Durant’s),” Barnes said, “which is impressive that anybody would even be on the same line with him because what he did as a freshman, I’m not sure it’s ever been done the way he did it, certainly at the time he did it.”

Durant averaged 25.8 points and 11.1 rebounds in his lone season in college.

Johnson was ranked No. 5 overall in the 247Sports Composite for the 2024 class. The Texas native was a five-star prospect out of Link Academy in Branson, Missouri. Vols Felix Okpara, Cade Phillips and walk-on Ben Linnemeyer also…

[ad_2]
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/no-1-tennessee-basketball-vs-190108033.html

Author : Knox News | The Knoxville News-Sentinel

Publish date : 2025-01-10 19:01:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.