Following their first loss of the season to Wisconsin earlier this week, Maryland will travel to Brooklyn, NY to face #7 Tennessee at Barclays Center as part of the 2022 Basketball Hall of Fame Invitational. The Volunteers currently hold a record of 8-1 (0-0 SEC), with their only loss coming to Colorado about a month ago. Their biggest win of the season came against Kansas as part of the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament. Head coach Rick Barnes is in his eighth season in Knoxville, and led them to a three-seed in last year's NCAA Tournament before they were upset by Michigan in the second round.
They have four players averaging double-digit scoring, led by freshman forward Julian Phillips. Senior guard Santiago Vescovi is second on the team in scoring, but has missed their last two games due to injury. It's still unclear whether or not he'll be playing in this one. It'll be interesting to see if Rick Barnes elects to use one of his bigger forwards more often in this game to take advantage of the size mismatch. 7'1" Uros Plavsic and 6'11" Jonas Aidoo have been solely role players early on, but they're worth keeping an eye on.
If you thought Wisconsin's defense was good (and they were), wait until you get a glimpse of the best defensive team in the country on Sunday afternoon.
KenPom Rankings
- Maryland: #19 (#18 AdjO, #32 AdjD; #249 AdjT)
- Tennessee: #3 (#35 AdjO, #1 AdjD; #150 AdjT)