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Tennessee vs Texas Tech: 2021-22 Jimmy V Classic game preview, TV schedule

By Tristan Freeman

Dec 4, 2021; Boulder, Colorado, USA; Tennessee Volunteers guard Kennedy Chandler (1) releases the ball past Colorado Buffaloes forward Evan Battey (21) in the second half at the CU Events Center. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 4, 2021; Boulder, Colorado, USA; Tennessee Volunteers guard Kennedy Chandler (1) releases the ball past Colorado Buffaloes forward Evan Battey (21) in the second half at the CU Events Center. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports /
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This year’s Jimmy V Classic doubleheader once again has some quality teams. Here’s a preview for the Texas Tech Red Raiders vs the Tennessee Volunteers.

TV schedule: Tuesday, December 7th, 7:00 pm ET. ESPN

Arena: Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York

The now annual Jimmy V Classic doubleheader is played at the prestigious Madison Square Garden in New York that features four quality programs. The purpose of this event is to highlight the Jimmy V Foundation, founded by former head coach and commentator Jim Valvano to raise money and awareness for cancer research. To this date, hundreds of millions have been raised to fight Cancer and this clip below continues to serve as one of the most inspiring messages for anyone for anything.

For the first game, we have a pair of intriguing teams in Tennessee (6-1) and Texas Tech (6-1). The Volunteers are coming off a highly impressive 15-point victory over Colorado, led by a season-high 27 points from star point guard Kennedy Chandler, who now leads the team overall in scoring at 16.1 ppg and 4.7 apg for the year.

Junior guard Santiago Vescovi is the only other double-digit scorer on the team at 15.1 ppg while shooting 39% from three-point range. But there’s a very good supporting cast that produces at a high level, including backup guard Justin Powell, big men John Fulkerson, Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, and Olivier Nkamhoua, along with Victor Bailey and Josiah Jordan-James in the backcourt. This team goes 9-deep and doesn’t see much dropoff, although sometimes they can struggle to scorer when Chandler isn’t on his game.

There’s a level of understanding of how good the Volunteers are and can be but not necessarily their opponents in the Red Raiders. They played effectively no one good in the first six games before taking on Providence last week. Texas Tech had a double-digit lead early on but allowed the Friars to make a big second-half comeback and eventually win, 72-68. Star guard and leading scorer Terrence Shannon Jr. had 17 in the game, with Kevin Obanor and Kevin McCullar having 12 and 10 points respectively.

The flaws that showed for Texas Tech was its propensity to foul a lot (29 total) while having a lack of scoring outside of Shannon and Obannor. On the season, the team has five players averaging in double figures but again, that was against lower-level opponents. Tennessee has a solid frontcourt, a star in Chandler, and good outside shooting.

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But the overall size and physicality that the Red Raiders possess will be something different for Chandler and could struggle in this game, which would then put the Vols in danger of losing. Yet I think the five-star freshman is good enough to withstand what the Big 12 team throws at them and leads Tennessee to a big victory.

Prediction: Tennessee 71, Texas Tech 62

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