INITIAL REACTION: Tennessee Basketball's Conference Schedule
On Thursday, Tennessee revealed its' conference schedule for the 2023-24 season, giving the public the full schedule. The Vols will open the conference slate on January 6th with Ole Miss at home and close it on March 9th with Kentucky coming to Knoxville. The breakdown of the conference slate looks like this:
- Home and Away: Kentucky, Texas A&M, Alabama, South Carolina, Vanderbilt
- Home Only: Ole Miss, Florida, Auburn, LSU
- Away Only: Missouri, Mississippi State, Arkansas, Georgia
I really like how this schedule looks on the pure breakdown alone without looking at spots and dates. The Vols will play nine road games in the conference, and there is a chance they are favored in 5 of them. That's very good in the landscape of SEC basketball currently. This, of course, is in addition to likely being favored in every home game. SEC basketball has taken off over the last couple of seasons due to an influx of talent and smart coaching hires. In a league like the SEC, every team will have a difficult stretch of games in conference play, and Tennessee's schedule is no different.
The Vols will close the regular season with their most challenging stretch, starting with a trip to Missouri and ending with Kentucky at home. In that six-game stretch from February 20th to March 9th, Tennessee will play five games against teams that finished in the top half of the SEC last season. Two of the three road games in that stretch are against teams that earned double-byes in the SEC Tournament. Outside of that, the Vols have back-to-back games at Texas A&M and Arkansas that could be difficult, and I know this sounds extremely challenging, like Tennessee got jobbed. However, every team in the conference has to go through this to some degree, and most aren't nearly as talented as Tennessee. The Vols should be in a good position to capture an SEC regular season title.
Tennessee HC Rick Barnes
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