Duke takes on Tennessee Monday at 12:30 p.m. Hawaii time. That translates to 5:30 p.m. EST.
I haven't seen this team play yet, as they've only had two small matchups (UNCG and Louisiana-Monroe), both of which they won handily.
This is not the Tennessee team of years past. For starters, we all know about Bruce Pearl being gone. First-year coach Cuonzo Martin brings a different style of play to the Volunteers, and his team is probably going to go through some growing pains this year as they try to adapt to more of a half-court offense as opposed to the run-and-gun style of Pearl. Martin's also pretty big on stifling half-court defense,
Players to watch out for: Well, the Vols' two top scorers, Scotty Hopson and Tobias Harris are of course gone, and sophomore point guard Trae Golden has been handed the reigns of the offense. So far, he's done a pretty good job, averaging 10 assists and 23 points in two games this season. But Golden hasn't faced a defense as disciplined as the Blue Devils, so he'll no doubt see a lot of pressure from our guards.
Good news for Duke: Tennesse is just not very experienced down low. Jeronne Maymon is Tennesse's top presence in the frontcourt. The transfer from Marquette averaged just 9 minutes last year and fewer than 3 ppg. He has, however, put up respectable numbers in the Vols' first two games, averaging 13 and 7.5, but again, that's against inferior competition. Hopefully this will be a great game for the Plumlees to continue to gain confidence and get the ball in the halfcourt set.
All in all, Tennesse is going to have a hard time scoring against quality teams this year, so if Duke's defense is firing on all cylinders, it could get ugly.
Go Duke!