After beating Georgia at home to get square at 1-1 in SEC play the Florida Gators will now welcome to Gainesville one of the top teams in the league in the Tennessee Volunteers. Before the season the Vols were picked to finish third in the SEC and while they haven’t exactly played up to expectation with an 11-4 record (1-1 in the SEC) they are still one of the teams that could compete for the top of the league and the meeting with Florida is a chance for both teams establish just where they sit in the pecking order.
Playing a difficult non-conference schedule, Tennessee was able to get some outstanding wins while also taking a loss they’d like to have back. On the positive side, the Volunteers took down Houston on a neutral floor which stands as one of the best wins of any team in the country, and also had a dominant 83-62 win over Louisville that is a gem on their NCAA Tournament resume. Both of these wins are much better than anything that Florida has been able to grab, and the Gators will try to prove that they can attain a quality win whereas Tennessee is looking for another to add to the books. On the negative side, Tennessee suffered a 2-point loss to lowly Syracuse, a game that was on the road–but one that is not going to age all that well.
SEC play started with a loss to Arkansas before a comfortable win over Texas on Tuesday, the same night the Gators took down Georgia.
In year eleven under head coach Rick Barnes, the Volunteers are once again exactly what you’d expect–a big, physical, defensive team that tries to grind the game down to powder and win in the 60s. Consistently one of the best defenses in the country they can win this way, but has pretty much always been the case with Barnes’ teams the offense is a bit of a slog and they can go extremely cold which allows their opponent to stay in games.
Perhaps the biggest storyline when the Gators and Volunteers tip off is that this is a battle between the #1 and #2 offensive rebounding teams in the country. For several weeks it was the Gators who had control of #1 but a week ago Tennessee took back the lead, and that’s where things stand going into Saturday. Notably, the Gators are 5th in defensive rebounding whereas Tennessee is 106th, so Florida will hope they can keep Tennessee off the offensive glass more than the other way around. Given the offensive struggles of both teams the glass is going to play a massive role, and it might end up being as simple as the team that wins the rebounding battle also wins the game.
Like Florida, Tennessee plays a ton of length along the front line and also puts out 6’10” at the “3” with heralded freshman Nate Ament. Ament was the 4th ranked player in the class of 2025 right behind the Darryn Peterson, Carlos Boozer, AJ Dybantsa hype train, and was one of the best high school players to ever be brought to Tennessee by Barnes. A skinny tough shot maker, the comparisons to Kevin Durant have always followed Ament–and that was one of the reasons he chose to play for Coach Barnes who coached Durant at Texas. Averaging 14.7 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 1.5 steals, he has made an impact on the wing and has found himself in positive matchups a lot of time but he’ll have a much more difficult one with Thomas Haugh and this should be primetime television Saturday.
Also contributing to Tennessee’s rebounding dominance are 6’11”, 245 pound returner Felix Okpara and 6’8”, 270 pound Vanderbilt transfer Jaylen Carey who brings stoutness to the power forward spot. This will be the biggest challenge that Florida’s frontcourt has had, and while the Gators have a bit more height and length, Tennessee probably has the muscle advantage.
Leading the way offensively for Tennessee will be a player familiar to Florida fans for a number of reasons in Ja’Kobi Gillespie. If you recall, the Gators were heavily involved with Gillespie in the portal two seasons ago when he was transferring from Belmont, but with Gillespie wanting to make a quick decision and the Gators looking to weigh options he chose Maryland. He played well for the Terrapins last year averaging 14.7 points and 4.8 assists, and had 17 points against the Gators in the NCAA Tournament. When he entered the portal once again following the coaching change at Maryland the Gators were interested once again, but Gillespie chose Tennessee. So far this season he has been playing like one of the best point guards in the country averaging 18.7 points, 5.7 assists, and 1.4 steals while hitting 36% of his threes and 90% of his free throws. A tactician in pick and rolls, Gillespie has been lethal when he gets any advantage on his defender as he can smoothly glide into the lane and hit short floaters or spray out to teammates for open looks, or keep the defense honest by drilling a deep three. Given that Tennessee has offensive limitations and doesn’t run the most complex action they have needed a shotmaker and creator to make things happen late and Gillespie has done that, and he will be at the top of the scouting report for Florida.
Tennessee’s half court offensive strategy relies a lot on setting baseline screens for Gillespie and Ament, hoping that they can either free up their two best shooters or find the defense overplaying where they can find their bigs like Okpara and Carey for slips to the rim after the screens. Barnes has run the same action for years and the Gators have had success guarding it, so you can bet they will have a plan in place that they can work on this week for how to neutralize it. From there, staying in rotation and staying in position to box out on three-point attempts will be pivotal as the Gators try to keep Tennessee off the glass and regain their spot at number one in the country in offensive rebounding.
Defensively the Volunteers are rock solid, and given Florida’s offensive inconsistencies they will need to try and get some kind of plan in place for how they can attack. Tennessee is extremely aggressive on the perimeter as they look for steals and deflections, and it will be up to Florida to have concepts in place for playing against the pressure.
Tennessee is currently 16th in KenPom and the Gators are yet to beat a team better than 30th (Georgia) and if they want to be a factor in March need to prove they can beat this caliber of team.
Florida and Tennessee will tip off Saturday, January 10th at 12 PM ET and it will be televised on ESPN.