Mason Heads to Rocky Top to Play Ranked Tennessee

By Palmer Johnson

Mason plays a huge game today against a 4-3 Tennessee team that is ranked 17^th in the AP Poll. The Volunteers are coming off three straight losses to #2 Purdue, #1 Kansas, and a ranked UNC team.

Mason is 1-0 against Tennessee, with the only meeting happening in 2004. Who was the point guard of that team? Tony Skinn.

The Vols are coached by former Mason assistant and head coach Rick Barnes.

Tennessee has some guys banged up, including their National Player of the Year candidate, Dalton Knecht (pronounced like connect I believe), here is what I could find on them.

SEC Injury Report (12/5)🏀🏥

Tennessee vs George Mason

Dalton Knecht (ankle): Game time decision. Rick Barnes said he has been moving well in practice, but they'll continue to monitor if he's ready or not.

Tobe Awaka (ankle): Expected to play. Rick Barnes said Awaka has been… pic.twitter.com/adRqrR3jtJ

— Southeastern 14 (@14Southeastern) December 5, 2023

It sounds like forward Tobe Awaka will play, and guard Freddie Dilione will play if needed. Dalton Knecht seems 50-50. I don’t think they’ll let him play since they have a big game against Illinois on Saturday.

Tennessee By The Numbers

The Vols are the 11^th ranked team on KenPom, with the 38^th ranked offense and 2^nd ranked defense.

On defense, they’re spectacular. They’re great at pretty much everything except fouling, where they give up a lot of free throws, being top 50 in free throws per field goal attempt at 44%. Their opponents shoot very poorly from the line though, either that is them being lucky, or they are semi-intentionally fouling the Malik Henry-type guys when they have a good shot.

On offense, they’re extremely fast-paced, with a average possession length of 15.3 seconds, which puts them at 24^th in the country. They’re average-ish from three and two, but hit their free throws at a high rate. The Vols take a lot of threes, with 41.7% of their shots being from behind the arc.

They struggle a bit rebounding offensively numbers-wise, but they have played some great rebounding teams and I don’t think Mason will be able to take advantage of them on the boards.

Keep in mind that their raw numbers are coming against a much tougher schedule than Mason has played, with their strength of schedule being 6^th in the country so far. Shooting average against such a tough schedule will get you the 38^th best offensive ranking.

The Vols are surprisingly a pretty small team, with their average height being .2 below D1 average. That is not what I expected from such a great defensive team, but a certain guard may be weighing their average down.

One of the reasons they are so good on the defensive end is their 2x SEC All-Defensive 5’9 guard, Zakai Zeigler. Zeigler is kind of a meh guy on offense, but is nuts defensively. Unfortunately, he tore his ACL late last season, and it seems like he is not back to his old form yet.

I watched the first half of their game against Wofford since it had a similar pace to Mason’s typical game, unlike their others that are mostly in the 70s.

Tennessee Scouting Report (1^st Half vs. Wofford)

On offense, there is lots and lots of ball movement. It seems like Tennessee has more passes than dribbles on a decent bit of possessions.

Barnes’ offense didn’t hesitate to take open threes, no matter how early it was in the shot clock. Mason is probably going to need to go over screens.

Tennessee did have a decent scoring drought early. If they can have a drought against Wofford, they definitely can against Mason.

Tennessee runs 5-out a decent bit, which could be a problem for Mason’s interior defense if Amari Kelly can’t sit in the paint.

On defense, the Vols were awesome at closing out. Wofford had so many almost open threes but were scared away from taking them.

Tennessee did a full court press and trap and their opponent really struggled, as they didn’t really get settled for the first 15 seconds of the shot clock.

Wofford’s guys were getting it inside a decent bit, but they’d get triple teamed and had no chance of scoring. Jonas Aidoo seemed like a pretty good defensive anchor.

Ziegler is so scrappy. He’s shorter than everyone on the court, and he’s getting higher on rebounds than forwards. There was a play where he got matched onto a big man and held his own. He must be made of concrete (I mean this in a good way).

What Does This Mean for Mason?

Mason has a chance if they’re hitting on all cylinders and Tennessee is a bit chilly from three. The Volunteers couldn’t pull away from Wofford in the first half, and Mason is a much better team than Wofford. This will not be an incredibly easy game for the SEC powerhouse, and I think Rick Barnes has made sure his players don’t think they’ll be dancing at halftime up 35.

Mason has guys who have played against similar talent on a semi-weekly basis with guys like Darius Maddox and Woody Newton having many years of P6 experience.

This is the type of game where you need someone unexpected to have a crazy game, like Woody Newton shooting 5-7 from three. You also need your point guards to never fall apart, hopefully Polite and Okojie can handle it like I think they can.

Prediction: No comment.

I am not expecting Mason to win, but I would be unbelievably elated if they did. This is the type of game that could change Mason Nation’s and possibly the rest of the A10’s outlook on the season.

I walked under a ladder while playing Rocky Top before the game, I’ve done all I can to help out Mason.

This is Skinn’s first Q1 win opportunity, let’s see what he does with it.

Get excited, Mason Nation. This is a HUGE game.

Win or lose, make sure to stop by the Twitter/X Spaces that will be hosted shortly after the game on @ByGeorgeGMU’s page.