Rick Barnes on Tennessee-Illinois: 'It's gonna be a hard fought basketball game'
Tennessee basketball’s schedule respite lasted all of one game. After grinding through Purdue, Kansas and North Carolina away from home over a period of nine days, the 17th-ranked Vols caught their breath in an 87-66 win over George Mason Tuesday night at Thompson-Boling Arena.
Now, though, the attention turns to No. 20 Illinois, with the Illini coming to Thompson-Boling Arena for Saturday’s Noon Eastern Time start on CBS.
“It’ll be interesting,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said Tuesday night. “I mean, they’re a hard-nosed, physical team as you would expect. It’s gonna be a hard fought basketball game.”
While Tennessee (5-3) was taking care of George Mason at home, Illinois (7-1) was at Madison Square Garden hanging 98 points on No. 11 Florida Atlantic in a 98-89 win in the Jimmy V Classic, with both Terrence Shannon and Marcus Domask scoring 33 points each.
Illinois has won six straight dating back to a 71-64 home loss to Marquette on November 14. Back in October Illinois beat then-No. 1 Kansas 82-75 in a charity exhibition game at home.
The Illini are ranked No. 14 overall in the KenPom ratings. They’re No. 11 in adjusted defensive efficiency and No. 29 in offensive efficiency.
“(Brad Underwood is a) great basketball coach,” Barnes said, “great scheme, physicality is gonna be there. I know they’re gonna play extremely hard.”
“I have confidence in our guys, but it’s basically, if you think about it, it’s gonna be our what fourth or fifth ranked game in what, less than 10 games?”
Vols played five of seven games in November away from home
After winning 89-88 in a charity exhibition game at Michigan State on October 29, Tennessee went back on the road in the Big Ten for the second game of the regular season, beating Wisconsin 80-70 at the Kohl Center in Madison.
The Badger lost their next game, at Providence, but have won six straight since then, beating Marquette at home and winning at Michigan State over their last two games, climbing to No. 23 in the Associated Press Top 25.
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Tennessee beat Syracuse in the first round of the Maui Invitational, then lost back-to-back games against then-No. 2 Purdue and then-No. 1 Kansas to finish fourth in the tournament.
The Vols got back to the mainland and went to then-No. 14 North Carolina, losing 100-92 in an ACC-SEC Challenge game at the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill.
As of Thursday, Tennessee’s strength of schedule was ranked No. 2 overall, behind Marquette.
“We’ve done a lot of traveling,” Barnes said. “But, again, you have to believe it’s going to help you.”
No. 17 Tennessee vs. No. 20 Illinois, Saturday, Noon ET, CBS
Underwood is in his seventh season at Illinois, after one year at Oklahoma State and three seasons at Stephen F. Austin.
Illinois has 88 wins over the last four seasons. Through the first eight games this season, Barnes believes his team should have more than five wins.
“Our schedule has been extremely difficult,” Barnes said, “obviously, when you think about it, but disappointed because we felt we should be undefeated, but we’re not. And so you are who you are.”
