Game Preview: Wofford Vs. Tennessee

Tennessee will get one more buy game before Maui Invitational

After a first week that surprised and impressed many, Tennessee will have a lighter second week of the season with just one game on the slate. That game will be a contest at Thompson-Boling Arena against the Wofford Terriers. Wofford, like Tennessee, picked up 2 wins to open their season, defeating Division lll Brevard and High Point.

Last season, Wofford finished 6th in the SoCon and 232nd in KenPom, but their top 2 players both transferred up. That was B.J. Mack who Tennessee will see later this season when they play South Carolina, and Jackson Paveletzke who went to Iowa State.

This season, Wofford is an extremely young team. They are 320th in division l experience according to KenPom and in their game against High Point, 5 of their 9 rotational players were underclassmen. That included 3 freshmen.

To be fair to the Terriers, the two guys that play the most for them are both juniors. Corey Tripp is a player who has been in the program for a couple of seasons and is averaging 15.5 points through two games after averaging below 9 last season. Tripp also hit a pair of free throws in the final seconds to get Wofford the win over High Point.

The other junior to watch out for is Dillon Bailey who comes from Division ll Northeastern State. Last season, he was All-Conference Honorable Mention in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association which boasts some of the best Division ll programs in the country. Bailey poured in 20 points and hit 3 threes in the game against High Point.

It's also worth mentioning that Freshman Jeremy Lorenz is having a solid start to his college career. Lorenz is nationally ranked right now in usage rate, offensive rebound % and block %. It's always nice as a coach to have a freshman like Lorenz who does some of the gritty work that is harder to teach.

Keys to the Game

In the past, especially under Mike Young, Wofford was a team known for their 3-point shooting. Last year, however, was the worst 3-point shooting season by a Wofford team since 2013. One thing to watch out for with this team is if they go back to really being able to make 3-point shooting their identity. The team shot 12-31 (38.7%) from 3 against High Point which is very good. If the Terriers can knock down threes tonight, they could maybe hang around for a little bit in a game that isn't expected to be close.

The other thing I would really focus on tonight is how many turnovers Tennessee can force. After forcing a ton of turnovers last year, the Vols haven't done it at a super high rate this season, granted they played Wisconsin who takes care of the ball well. I imagine Rick Barnes wants to see Zakai Zeigler out in transition like he did so many times last year.

Wofford only turned it over 4 times against High Point, but had a problem holding on to the basketball against Brevard.

After the game tonight, Tennessee will get 5 days off before the Maui Invitational in Hawaii. The Vols will open the tournament with Syracuse before facing off against either Gonzaga or Purdue. That tournament could really show where the Vols stand nationally, but for now, Wofford is the task at hand.

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