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Game Preview: Tennessee At Wisconsin

Can the Vols come out on top in their first road game of the season?

Jonathan Lidskin

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Tennessee will be on the road for their first true test of the season tonight. The Vols are traveling up to Madison to take on Wisconsin at 9:00 P.M. EST at the Kohl Center. This is a game that will complete a home-and-home that started in 2019 with Tennessee beating the Badgers 68-48 at Thompson-Boling Arena. The two teams were scheduled to complete the series in the 2020-21 season, but obviously, the Covid-19 pandemic had other ideas.

Based on reports, it doesn't sound like both teams will be 100% healthy. Tennessee got Zakai Zeigler back on Monday, but Wisconsin on the other hand, could be missing Sophomore Guard Connor Essegian who is listed as questionable with a back injury. Essegian is a key piece to this Badgers team after averaging nearly 12 points and shooting nearly 36% from 3 as a freshman.

Without Essegian at 100%, look for for the Badgers to rely more heavily on Max Klesmit. Klesmit actually got the start over Essegian on Monday and hit all 5 of his shot attempts to tally 14 points in 18 minutes.

Outside of Klesmit, the other Badger guards against the Tennessee guards is going to be a focal point tonight. Chucky Hepburn and AJ Storr and two players who shot a high percentage on threes last season, but neither at a high volume. Hepburn will be especially important to Wisconsin's defense because he'll draw whoever is handling the ball for Tennessee. Hepburn's strength allows him to keep opposing ball handlers out of the lane and stops them from making plays in the half-court.

In the frontcourt, both Tyler Wahl and Steven Crowl pose intriguing, but different challenges. Wahl does the majority of his work within 4.5 feet of the rim and gets his points with crafty footwork. He's excellent at drawing fouls as he was nationally ranked last season in free throw rate, but only shot 63.4% from the line. Crowl on the other hand, is a more versatile offensive player despite not excelling in one area. Crowl last season shot 68% on shots within 4.5 feet of the basket which was 5.5% above the average in Division 1. However, Crowl also attempted 88 threes last season, shooting just 30.7% on them. It would behoove him to post up more although with Jonas Aidoo's shot-blocking ability, we could see him operate a lot on the perimeter tonight.

Some other names to know for Wisconsin are John Blackwell, who scored 12 points in his first collegiate game on Monday. Freshman Nolan Winter was also one of the first off the bench for the Badgers against Arkansas State.

Keys for Tennessee

Last season, Wisconsin's main strength was that they didn't turn the ball over ever. The Badgers finished 6th nationally in offensive turnover percentage at 13.4%. From that team last year, the Badgers had 4 guys that were nationally ranked in turnover percentage and 3 of them are back (including Connor Essegian). Last year, the Vols were top 20 nationally in turnover percentage defensively and against Tennessee Tech, actually forced a turnover percentage higher than their average last year.

Wisconsin Head Coach Greg Gard has always liked to play slow. In fact, the Badgers have only finished above 300 in adjusted tempo once in Gard's tenure. As a result, Tennessee probably isn't forcing 16 turnovers like they did against Tennessee Tech, but if they can force 12 and get some easy fast break points, they'll have a good shot to get a road win.

The other key for Tennessee to get out of Madison victorious is offensive rebounding. Last year, Tennessee was one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the country and Wisconsin, while not elite, was still in the top 90% nationally when it came to allowing offensive rebounds.

Rick Barnes was disappointed in Tennessee's offensive rebounding in the exhibition game against Lenoir-Rhyne, so while I don't think offensive rebounding will be as vital to Tennessee's offense this season, grabbing 12-15 of their own misses tonight would go a long way.

This will be Tennessee's one non-buy game before the team heads to Honolulu for the Maui Invitational. The Vols will have one more contest (vs. Wofford) after the trip to Madison. While it's early in the season, the Vols getting a win tonight and looking good while doing it could put the college basketball world on notice.

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Jonathan Lidskin
JONATHAN LIDSKIN