Tennessee basketball: Vols 2018-2019 SEC opponents released
The Southeastern Conference released Tennessee basketball’s opponents in 2019 on Wednesday. Here’s who the Volunteers will face at home and on the road.
Both of Tennessee basketball’s SEC opponents that they’ll meet twice this year in addition to their three permanent opponents made the NCAA Tournament in 2018. The Vols will face the Missouri Tigers and the Florida Gators at home and on the road.
That’s in addition to their match-ups at home and on the road against the Kentucky Wildcats, Vanderbilt Commodores and South Carolina Gamecocks. So of their 10 conference games against opponents they face twice, six will be against NCAA teams last year.
This is all part of the men’s basketball SEC match-ups that the conference released on Wednesday. Details of when the games will happen remain up in the air.
In addition to those games, the Vols host the Alabama Crimson Tide, the Arkansas Razorbacks, the Georgia Bulldogs, and the Mississippi State Bulldogs. They will visit the Auburn Tigers, the LSU Tigers, the Ole Miss Rebels, and the Texas A&M Aggies.
So of the other four NCAA Tournament teams from last year’s conference, Tennessee basketball will face two at home, Alabama and Arkansas, and two on the road, Auburn and Texas A&M.
Given what happened last year and the schedule draw, it would seem that the Vols have a fairly standard SEC schedule this year. After all, 10 of their 18 games are against NCAA Tournament teams, just over half, and that’s representative of the conference last year. And half are on the road while half are at home.
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However, things could get tougher for Rick Barnes’s group as the tourney teams show no sign of slowing down, and there’s reason to believe South Carolina, whom Tennessee basketball plays twice, could be significantly better. Add in their non-conference schedule, and there’s a chance things get really tough.