Tennessee vs Missouri: 5 storylines for SEC opener between ranked foes

Missouri and Tennessee are the lone ranked teams from the SEC. This highly anticipated matchup has plenty of storylines.

Tennessee and Missouri have begun the 2020-21 campaign with identical 6-0 non-conference records as both are ranked among the top-15 teams nationally. With this being the first conference game for each team, it looks to be a ‘big one’.

Combine the success of these two programs, who will meet up on Dec 30, 2020, with the early struggles of Kentucky Basketball and Florida Basketball having to continue their season without preseason SEC Player of the Year Keyontae Johnson, it looks as Missouri and Tennessee are going to be the pacesetters for the SEC.

Although ranked lower at No.14, Missouri currently has the more impressive resume with victories over Oregon and Illinois, whereas Tennessee’s most impressive victory came against Colorado. This match-up, due to its conference implications, will be each team’s most important game to date.

Since Head Coach Cuonzo Martin joined the SEC as Missouri’s head coach, he and Head Coach Rick Barnes have met up five times, four of those games resulted in a Tennesee victory. Last season’s victory by Tennessee was led by senior Jordan Bowden with 13 points, but the Volunteers had six players in total who scored in double digits.

This season the storylines will revolve around Missouri’s advantage in the paint and how Tennessee will counter that through team defense, as well as an interesting match-up in the backcourt. These two teams will meet up again on Jan.23, 2021, but until that re-match, the winner of this game puts themselves in a position to be the top team in the SEC for nearly half the conference schedule.