Tennessee basketball drops in updated Associated Press Top 25
Tennessee basketball came in at No. 8 in Monday’s updated Associated Press Top 25. Despite winning at Ole Miss last week, the Vols dropped down one spot after being ranked No. 7 in last week’s poll.
Tennessee (11-2, 1-0 SEC) hosts Mississippi State (11-2, 0-1) on Tuesday (7 p.m. Eastern Time; TV: ESPN2) in the SEC home opener at Thompson-Boling Arena.
Mississippi State started the season with 11 straight wins under new head coach Chris Jans, but have lost two straight. Drake won 58-52 on a neutral floor and Alabama beat State 78-67 at Humphrey Coliseum in Starkville on Wednesday.
State is No. 6 in KenPom.com‘s adjusted defensive efficiency rating, giving up 88.0 points per 100 possessions. The Bulldogs are No. 142 offensively, scoring 103.6 points per 100 possessions, and are No. 39 overall in the KenPom ratings.
“They know how they want to play,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said on Monday before practice at Thompson-Boling Arena. “Extremely well coached. Change defenses, play really, really hard switching. Really trying to make you think.”
Jans went 122-32 in five seasons at New Mexico State, winning 25 or more games in four of those five years, before being hired away by Mississippi State to replace Ben Howland.
New Mexico State went 30-5 in 2018-19, after Jans led the team to a 28-6 record in 2017-18, his first season. The Aggies went 27-7 last season, advancing to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, beating UConn as a No. 12 seed.
“The fact of the matter is, (Mississippi State does) a terrific job of knowing exactly what they want on the offensive end,” Barnes said. “And defensively, they do the things that good defensive teams do. They pressure, they’ll mix their defenses and they rebound the basketball.”
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Tennessee senior wing Josiah-Jordan James went through a full pregame routine at Ole Miss on Wednesday, but sat out for the eighth time in 13 games while dealing with knee soreness.
James was a more active participant in Monday’s practice in Knoxville.
“He is doing better,” Barnes said. “He is starting to work his way back in. We will see what that leads to, but he is working his way back in.”
Tennessee vs. Mississippi State: How to watch, stream, listen
Tipoff Time: 7 p.m. ET, Tuesday
Location: Thompson-Boling Arena
TV: ESPN2
Streaming: ESPN App or WatchESPN.com
Radio: WNML-FM 99.1 in Knoxville. The Vol Network radio broadcast (Bob Kesling – play-by-play – Bert Bertelkamp, analyst) can be heard on local affiliates across the state of Tennessee.
Up Next: Tennessee vs. Mississippi State, Tuesday, 7 p.m. ET, ESPNU
After hosting Mississippi State on Wednesday, the remaining January SEC schedule for Tennessee includes home games against Vanderbilt (January 10), Kentucky (January 14) and Georgia (January 25). The Vols play at South Carolina (January 7), at Mississippi State (January 17) at LSU (January 21).
Texas, the final non-conference game on schedule, will be played January 28 at Thompson-Boling Arena in the Big 12-SEC Challenge.
