Undefeated vs. no win: No. 8 Tennessee meets South Carolina in upstate
Unbeaten and eighth ranked, Tennessee will enter a last non-conference meeting on Wednesday when it hosts South Carolina in Knoxville.
The game against the Spartans (0-7) will be the second of the Volunteers in three days, which come from a 102-66 victory over St. Joseph’s on Monday.
“It’s a quick turnaround,” said Tennessee coach Rick Barnes. “We are going to clean up this game very quickly tomorrow, show some of the good, the bad and the ugly (in the movie). We immediately arrived at (USC) Upstate.
Tennessee (5-0) has been climbing the winning column and ranking supported by two things basketball coaches love – balanced scoring and steady defense.
John Fulkerson and Victor Bailey Jr. lead Tennessee in scoring, averaging 12.2 points per game. Jaden Springer, named the SEC’s freshman of the week this week, adds 12 per game.
But against St. Joe’s, six Vols scored double digits, led by Bailey’s 18 points and Santiago Vescovi’s 16 points.
St. Joe’s 66 points marked the first time this season that Tennessee allowed more than 60.
USC Upstate will try to avoid its first 0-8 start in 12 years. The Spartans have been out of action since the 65-57 loss to UNC Greensboro on December 15.
The Spartans are led by Tommy Bruner and Bryson Mozone, who have average scores of 14.5 and 12.9, respectively.
Because of COVID-19’s concerns, coach Dave Dickerson passed the training and game tasks to assistant Stacey Palmore, who is the interim head coach.
“I have an excellent technical team, well equipped to meet this challenge,” Dickerson told the Spartanburg Herald-Journal of his decision to train virtually this season. “I know that … Stacey and (assistant) Drew Garcia will make this perfect transition for our players. I am confident that they are up to the challenge.”
Wednesday’s clash will be the second meeting of all time between the two schools. In the first, the Vols won 74-65 in 2013.
This season, the Vols scored more than 100 points in two consecutive games.
Next, after the Spartans, will be the opening of Vols’ SEC on December 30 against Missouri, 14th place.
“All we can do is do what we do now and try to continue to improve and keep trying to get our team at the pace we want to play,” said Barnes of the next SEC game. “How do you do that? You have to get better and better every day. You have to understand that you obviously get into the conference game and everything goes up a notch.”
USC Upstate will return to Big South to play next, facing High Point on December 30th.
– Field-level media