Scouting Tennessee (next game)

This will lbe a very tough one for our Tigers on the road. I do not expect us to win but if we play very well we could definitely pull it out. Tennessee is a very deep team with a 10 man rotation in which 9 of those guys see 12 minutes or more a game. As far as starter breakdown goes...

Center
(6'9, 242) Wayne Chism vs. (6'11, 210) Chris Johnson
Wayne is a strong, tall, very good player for Tennessee. He is their #2 scorer averaging over 12 points a game in just 24 minutes of play. He is unsurprisingly Tennessee's leading rebounder with just under 9 a game. I do not believe CJ will be able to handle this guy at all. Yes, he's not a 7 footer, but as we've seen before shorter, strong player still have their way with CJ. I hope to see more of QT in this one who can be physical with Wayne.

Power Forward
(6'7, 215) Tyler Smith vs. (6'7, 235) Tasmin Mitchell
This will be the matchup to watch. These guys are both very evenly matched up IMO and this will be a battle. Tyler Smith is a big time scorer putting up just under 18 points a game and he also dishes out the ball like a PG at times. Taz will have his hands full...but so will Tyler Smith.

Guard/Forward
(6'7, 205) JP Prince vs. (6'6, 190) Garrett Temple
JP Prince is a pretty good scorer putting up 10 points a game in just 24 minutes of action but is NOT a threat from 3 point range which leads me to believe we'll have GT guarding their 2-guard which is Scotty Hopson who is a threat from outside while Marcus Thornton will be on this guy. Marcus Thornton will have his hands full with this fella.

Shooting Guard
(6'7, 185) Scotty Hopson vs. (6'4, 205) Marcus Thornton
Hopson averages under 9 points a game in 22 minutes of action. Hopson has been inconsistent though in scoring from game to game. He's had 7 games of 10-19 points but has also had 6 games of scoring 5 points or less. Like I said earlier I expect GT to be guarding him since he is a threat to shoot from outside. This is also just a smart matchup to force the freshman into making some mistakes as GT forces so many. Whichever Tennessee player guards Marcus Thornton will have a long night.

Point Guard
(6'2, 185) Bobby Maze vs. (6'1, 180) Bo Spencer
Maze averages 9 points and 3.7 assts in 27 minutes of action. Not a big scorer but does a good job of dishing the ball out and not turning it over (2:1 AST:TURN ratio). Bo IMO will have a good night against him and shouldn't have too much trouble guarding him.