Vols face South Carolina in key SEC contest
KNOXVILLE — Saturday night, top-ranked Tennessee will have a basketball matchup against No. 5 Kentucky at Rupp Arena. ESPN’s “College Gameday” will be in attendance, as the Southeastern Conference has two teams in the top five of the men’s polls for the first time since Florida and LSU were there in the 2006-07 preseason list.
There’s plenty of time for the hype, but there’s work to be done prior.
Tennessee hosts fourth-place South Carolina at 6:30 tonight in another key SEC contest. The Volunteers — 22-1 overall and 10-0 in the SEC while riding an 18-game win streak — already have a victory against the Gamecocks, 92-70 in Columbia on Jan. 29.
“I think any time you go against South Carolina, you know that they’re going to play an extremely hard and physical game, and I think everybody knows that,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said Monday. “We fully expect it. They compete as hard as anybody that you’re going to play against, and that’s what we expect.”
The Gamecocks are only 12-11 overall but are 7-3 in the SEC — three games behind the Vols and two games behind Kentucky and LSU going into those teams’ meeting Tuesday night. In the loss to Tennessee, South Carolina battled back from a 10-point early-second-half deficit to within 60-58 until the Vols responded with an 11-3 run and ended the game on a 19-6 spurt.
Because of the level of respect the Tennessee players as well as their coaches have for the Gamecocks, it’s hard to imagine Tennessee overlooking South Carolina. After the players were done with interviews in the first game, Admiral Schofield and Grant Williams were stopped by South Carolina head coach Frank Martin, and the three had a lengthy conversation.
“You’ve got to give it to Coach Martin. They had a really great game plan, and his teams are always tough,” Schofield said then. “We’re similar teams, but we play to our standard, and that’s one of the things we’ve set. I wouldn’t say we model our standards to his or his team, but (we have) great respect for him and how hard they play.
“We’re similar in that aspect.”
The Vols have Jordan Bowden back after the 6-foot-5 guard missed the first meeting due to a knee injury but may not have sophomore Yves Pons, who suffered a facial injury during Thursday’s practice and missed the Florida game Saturday. Barnes said Monday that Pons was going to have to wear a mask for a few weeks but that he could be ready to go against the Gamecocks if the specially ordered mask was ready in time.
So it’s hard to imagine that the Vols will be looking past the Gamecocks. Their head coach certainly doesn’t seem to think that’s going to be the case.
“I think our guys have so much respect for South Carolina, and they understand where they are right now,” Barnes said. “They have a great respect for our league, and I thought we went out and competed hard against Florida. I expect them to understand that today’s preparation is really important and get ready for Wednesday’s game. That’s always what we’ve tried to do, and that’s what I expect from them.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress. com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.