Live Updates: Tennessee basketball vs. McNeese State
After running through the Battle 4 Atlantis bracket last week, Tennessee basketball is back at home Wednesday to host McNeese State at Thompson-Boling Arena. The game is scheduled for a 7:15 p.m. Eastern Time start on SEC Network.
Follow along for live updates throughout the game on The General’s Quarters
The Vols (5-1) beat Butler, Southern Cal and Kansas over the course of three days last week in the Bahamas. McNeese State (2-5) lost its last two games, at Baylor, 89-60 on Wednesday, and at UT Martin, 86-83, on Monday.
“They’ve been playing a lot of 1-1-3 zone,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said before practice on Tuesday. “They’ve got good offensive explosion. They can get going. Playing a daunting schedule as you can imagine, but the fact is, they’ll come in and compete extremely hard.
“They’re zone, they’re extremely aggressive in. They have different wrinkles out of it, so we’ll have to be able to take care of the ball again and try to do what we think we need to do against it.”
Tennessee Basketball: How to watch, stream, listen
Tipoff Time: 7:15 p.m. Eastern Time
Location: Thompson-Boling Arena (21,678)
TV: SEC Network (Tom Hart — play-by-play; Dane Brad Shaw, analyst)
Streaming: WatchESPN.com or ESPN App
Radio: WNML-FM 99.1 in Knoxville. The Vol Network radio broadcast (Bob Keeling — play-by-play; Bert Bertelkamp — analyst) can be heard on local affiliates across the state of Tennessee or can be streamed on the iHeart Radio app. The game can be heard on satellite radio on SiriusXM Channel 83 or on the SiriusXM App on Channel 83.
Josiah-Jordan James (knee soreness) remain day-to-day
Tennessee senior wing Josiah-Jordan James, who did not play in The Bahamas due to knee soreness, remains day-to-day. Barnes said on Tuesday that the timeline moving forward is up to James and how he feels.
“It’s really up to him,” Barnes said of James, who leads the Vols in scoring (13.7 points per game) and rebounding (6.0). “We want him to be 100 percent healthy when he’s ready to play. He did do a little bit yesterday, but only he knows where he really is. Mentally I think he’s got to feel good about it, when he’s ready to go.”
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Looking Back: The Battle 4 Atlantis
Tennessee outscored Butler by 21 points in the second half on Wednesday, running away with a 71-45 win. The Vols beat USC in overtime on Thursday, 73-65, then put the defensive clamps on Kansas in the championship game Friday night, winning 64-50.
Barnes said on Tuesday he was happy with how his team handled the quick turnaround between the second and third games in the tournament.
“The way our guys were really focused in on the game plan,” Barnes said of his biggest takeaway from the wins in The Bahamas, “because you have a normal procedure to get ready for the first game against Butler, but the next two days it’s a quick turnaround.
“The fact that we had great concentration. We really played our scouting report well in both of those games. Our defensive effort was terrific, in terms of what we felt like we needed to get done in both of those games.
“Offensively, again, I don’t think we’ve hit our stride yet,” Barnes added, “in terms of getting our feet under us totally. But playing against a very physical team in Butler, then a zone really for 38 minutes (against USC), then coming back against Kansas … just the fact that our guys are really bought in to each other, that they know what their roles are and what they need to do to help us be successful.”
