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Tennessee Basketball: Vols Have Big Opportunity vs No. 21 Ranked Texas A&M Aggies Saturday

By Caleb Calhoun

Jan 6, 2016; Knoxville, TN, USA; Tennessee Volunteers head coach Rick Barnes during the first half against the Florida Gators at Thompson-Boling Arena. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 6, 2016; Knoxville, TN, USA; Tennessee Volunteers head coach Rick Barnes during the first half against the Florida Gators at Thompson-Boling Arena. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports /
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Coming off its first major win of the year Rick Barnes’s Tennessee basketball team has a big opportunity Saturday. The Volunteers host the Texas A&M Aggies.

Was Tennessee’s blowout against Florida on Wednesday an aberration or a turning point in the season and a sign of things to come?

Related Story: Vols Basketball Gets Biggest Win of the Year vs Florida

We will find out soon enough.

The Vols host the No. 21 ranked Texas A&M Aggies, who are 12-2 on the year and have big wins against the Gonzaga Bulldogs and the Baylor Bears.

However, Tennessee has shown it can play with anybody, and Texas A&M is 1-2 on the road this year, their one win being a 61-60 victory over the Mississippi State Bulldogs earlier this week.

Still, all three games are against unranked teams, and despite the steps forward the program has taken under Billy Kennedy, there is still the fact that it is Texas A&M, and you can’t ever count on them to be unbeatable.

So if Vols fans do their job at Thompson-Boling Arena, the Aggies could have a very rough time.

Unfortunately for Tennessee, nothing they do can favor them in a match-up with the Aggies. Texas A&M is a big team, led by two 6’7″ seniors in scoring along with a pair of 6’10” players and a 6’8″ player among the top scorers on the team.

The Aggies will present a huge size issue against the Vols, and their only chance is to win the tempo game and shoot well from the outside.

But even then, if Tennessee bases their game on tempo, Texas A&M can go 10-deep and might not have a problem matching it.

Still, Tennessee is going to have to try. Barnes should employ a full-court press all game, and if Kevin Punter can play in control and the shots fall from the outside, they have a great chance to pull off the upset.

Armani Moore is likely to be a non-factor in this game. He is already in a scoring slump, and all of the other things he can do underneath the basket are going to be neutralized by Texas A&M’s size.

His best asset will be trying to keep the ball from getting down low on defense and helping the Vols score out of their half-court sets when they are forced into those situations.

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Barnes’s Vols gained some confidence and momentum in their victory over Florida on Wednesday. This is their chance to take that forward, and perhaps they will turn things around in conference play.

There’s still a lot of basketball left to play.

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