Tennessee Basketball: 2019-20 keys for Vols against Wisconsin Badgers

LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY - MARCH 28: Jordan Bowden #23 of the Tennessee Volunteers reacts against the Purdue Boilermakers during the second half of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament South Regional at the KFC YUM! Center on March 28, 2019 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /

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COLUMBUS, OHIO – MARCH 24: The Tennessee Volunteers (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /

Tennessee Basketball has an important non-conference matchup against the Wisconsin Badgers. What are the keys for the Vols to get the win?

It’s been a rough past month on the court for Tennessee Basketball. Before last week’s game against Jacksonville State, the Vols had lost three of their last five contests, including back-to-back games to both Memphis and Cincinnati. The skid ended last Saturday in a 75-53 win over the Gamecocks. Jordan Bowden led all scorers with 19 points, while Lamonte Turner had eight points and 11 assists.

Unfortunately for Tennessee, that was the last game for Turner in a Vols uniform. After the game, the senior point guard elected to have season-ending surgery on a shoulder that was bothering him since the season started. He’s the second-leading scorer on the team (12.3 ppg), while being one of the best point guards in the SEC, dishing out 7.1 apg.

For the 8-3 Vols, this is the last non-conference game of the year (excluding a matchup against Kansas in the Big 12/SEC Challenge in January) before the start of SEC play. And they have just one game to play without Turner before dealing with some tough opponents. But that actually starts this weekend against Wisconsin 6-5 (1-1), who is looking for another resume-building win for what projects to be a bubble team going forward.

The Badgers took care of business last week in an 83-64 win over Milwaukee, led by a career-high 31 points from D’Mitrik Trice. But he won’t be the only key Wisconsin player that the Vols will have to deal with in this important bubble matchup. Here are a few keys for Tennessee to take care of the Big Ten opponent.

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