Scouting report: No. 6 Arizona Wildcats vs. No. 19 Tennessee Volunteers

The Star's Bruce Pascoe breaks down the starting lineups, storylines and stats as the No. 6-ranked Arizona Wildcats prepare to take on the No. 19-ranked Tennessee Volunteers Wednesday night in Knoxville. 

What: No. 6 Arizona (11-0) at No. 19 Tennessee (8-2)

Where: Thompson-Boling Arena, Knoxville, Tenn.

When: 5 p.m.

TV: ESPN2

Radio: 1290-AM, 107.5-FM

Social media: @TheWildcaster on Twitter / TheWildcaster on Facebook

Probable starters: Arizona

G Kerr Kriisa (6-3 sophomore)

G Dalen Terry (6-6 sophomore)

F Bennedict Mathurin (6-6 sophomore)

F Azuolas Tubelis (6-11 sophomore)

C Christian Koloko (7-0 junior)

Probable starters: Tennessee

G Kennedy Chandler (6-1 freshman)

G Santiago Vescovi (6-3 junior)

G Josiah-Jordan James (6-6 junior)

F John Fulkerson (6-9 senior)

F Olivier Nkamhoua (6-8 junior)

How they match up

The series: Arizona is 1-3 against Tennessee, but the teams have met only once in the past quarter century. UA won 73-72 in Albuquerque in the BCA Classic early in the 1998-99 season, when Jason Terry had 26 points to lead an Arizona team that suffered heavy losses to the NBA in the summer of 1998. Earlier, the Wildcats lost both ends of a home-and-home series played in Knoxville in 1982-83 and in Tucson 1983-84, while the Volunteers also beat the Wildcats in 1956-57 at Knoxville.

Game contract: The Volunteers agreed to a home-and-home contract with Arizona on June 2, allowing the Wildcats to effectively replace a scheduled game at Gonzaga they postponed after hiring former Zags assistant Tommy Lloyd in April. The Wildcats will host the return game with Tennessee at McKale Center on Saturday, Dec. 17 next season. No cash will be exchanged while the visiting team will receive 100 tickets for each game.

Tennessee overview: Despite losing three players to the NBA and four to the transfer portal — and losing two assistant coaches to other jobs — the Volunteers have landed on their feet so far this season. It helps considerably that they brought in a Top 5 recruiting classes headed by point guard Kennedy Chandler, the top-rated point guard in the class of 2021, and have mixed him in with a veteran core of wings and big men.

Junior guard Santiago Vescovi is a frequent 3-point shooter (37% from the field) who can also handle the ball well, while freshman Zakai Zeigler has better than a 2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio off the bench. Former Oregon guard Victor Bailey also brings shooting off the bench but has hit 3s at only a 23.1% rate so far this season. Inside, super senior John Fulkerson is a popular, energetic big man who sets a hard-driving tone.

The Volunteers are aggressive in the lanes and on the perimeter, turning opponents over 25.4% of the time, the 13th highest defensive turnover percentage in Division I. They are average defending the 3-point shot (30.7%) but keep opponents to just 42.7% shooting in two-point range, the 17th best two-point defensive percentage nationally.

Tennessee isn’t an overpowering rebounding team but the Volunteers take care of the ball, turning the ball over just 15.3% of the time and allowing opponents to block just 6.1% of their shots.

He said it: “Rick Barnes teams are very hard playing teams, very unselfish, tough teams to beat so it’s going to be a battle and our guys understand that. If you’re going to beat a Rick Barnes team you’ve gotta play hard. They have some returning guys who have been very good and some new guys who are very good.

“They do some different things defensively than they’ve done in the past. They put a lot of pressure on the ball, a lot of pressure on the passing lanes and this year they have a good pick-and-roll defense. And they go probably 11 deep, so they can play really hard and when guys get tired, put somebody else in.

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“Three guys are playmakers — Chandler, (Zakai) Zeigler and Vescovi. They can play two or three of them together. They have three or four guys who are really good shooters and a group of talented bigs. Our bigs have been fantastic this year but this is a different challenge. They have a lot of bodies they can throw at you. Fulkerson is an energy, toughness type of guy. He’ll get offensive rebounds and finish around the rim. Nkamhoua is a good shooter and a very physical post-up player. Both are high-IQ players.

“It’s going to be a great environment, the atmosphere of a big-time college basketball game. We’ve got to stick with our plan. Rebounding is going to be a big one and we’ve got to get great shots.”

— UA assistant coach Riccardo Fois, who scouted the Volunteers. 

Key player (Tennessee): Kennedy Chandler

Rated the top point guard in the class of 2021, Chandler also helped lead USA Basketball to the gold in the FIBA U19 World Cup last summer, facing Arizona’s Bennedict Mathurin of Canada in the semifinals. He has a 2.5-1 assist turnover ratio, can score on multiple levels and is an aggressive defender who records a steal on 3.7% of opponents’ possessions when he’s on the floor.

Key player (Arizona): Christian Koloko

With Koloko, Oumar Ballo and Azuolas Tubelis, the Wildcats might have a size advantage over the Volunteer big men but Tennessee has an experience advantage with veteran post players John Fulkerson and junior Olivier Nkamhoua. The Wildcats still need big production from the 7-foot Cameroonian.

Sidelines

Holiday chillin’

Unlike last season, when the Wildcats remained pretty much confined to their apartments over Christmas, they will have a few days off after Wednesday for a Christmas break before returning Sunday to prepare for scheduled Pac-12 games against UCLA and USC over New Year’s.

That’s also a different schedule than during just about any other holiday that tries to happen during basketball season.

“College coaches live crazy lives, right?” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said, when asked what Christmas will be like in his household. “We don't even know what to do with a normal Thanksgiving. We like being in Maui or the Bahamas and eating at a restaurant. But Christmas is nice because I've never traveled on Christmas. I always stay home.

“Me and my family will be there and we'll just hang out. if we have any guys (players) in town, we'll hang out with them too, but it's pretty laid back. I’ve got three teenagers, so there's a lot of sleeping in.”

Matchup has Zags roots

The only one of Arizona’s marquee nonconference games that was scheduled after Lloyd was hired in April, the Arizona-Tennessee matchup can be traced back to a long relationship between Tennessee coach Rick Barnes and Gonzaga coach Mark Few.

Barnes came to know Lloyd, then a Gonzaga assistant, during their frequent matchups, which included near-annual scrimmages between the Zags and Barnes’ teams at Texas. 

“We met different places,” Barnes told Tennessee media on Monday. “Getting to know Tommy, he certainly had a lot to do with the success at Gonzaga, as all assistants help you with what you're doing. He was the coach-in-waiting there, but had this opportunity come along.

“Do they do some of the same things? They do, obviously. But he's added his own touch to it, too. They're doing a little more pressure stuff, I think, defensively. Changing some things up on the defensive end more than maybe Gonzaga has done in the past. But there are some similarities to the way both teams play."

Another NBA Academy alum

While Bennedict Mathurin and Ballo faced a fellow NBA Global Academy alum in Cal Baptist’s Taran Armstrong last Saturday at McKale Center, Armstrong was actually in the Australia NBA outfit while the UA players were based in Mexico City with NBA Academy Latin America.

On Wednesday, though, Mathurin and Ballo will face a fellow NBA Latin America alum in guard Santiago Vescovi, a guard from Uruguay who played with them in Mexico City in 2018.

“It's going to be a special game,” Vescovi said, adding that he also played with UA’s Justin Kier in a camp. “I know some of their guys and it's going to be fun to see them again and play against them."

Numbers game

85.8 – Points that Tenensssee opponents score per 100 possessions, making the Volunteers the No. 2 team in defensive efficiency behind only LSU (84.8)

248 – Arizona’s rank in ratio of 3-pointers taken relative to two-point shots (36.7%)

735 – Career wins for Tennessee coach Rick Barnes, the sixth most among active NCAA coaches.