It’s Tennessee basketball game day, with the Vols on the road to face Michigan State in a charity exhibition game at Breslin Center in East Lansing, Mich. The game is scheduled for a 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time and can be seen on the Big Ten Network.
Today’s exhibition is the second in a two-year deal between the two programs, with Tennessee hosting the Spartans in a closed scrimmage at Thompson-Boling Arena last October. Proceeds from the open exhibition will go toward the Maui wildfire relief efforts.
Tennessee’s game notes project the five starters for the Vols to be junior guard Jordan Gainey, junior guard Jahmai Mashack, fifth-year senior wing Dalton Knecht, fifth-year senior wing Josiah-Jordan James and junior forward Jonas Aidoo.
The Vols are ranked No. 9 in the Associated Press Preseason Top 25 and Michigan State is ranked No. 4. Tennessee has a 2-5 all-time record against the Spartans but have played only once since 1994, a 70-69 loss in the 2010 NCAA Tournament in the Elite Eight in St. Louis.
Tennessee at Michigan State: How To Watch
Kickoff Time: 3:30 p.m. ET
Location: Breslin Center (14,759)
TV: Big Ten Network
Injury Report
Tennessee fifth-year senior guard Santiago Vescovi will not be with the Vols for today’s game after traveling home to Uruguay to be with his family and his ailing grandmother.
Zakai Zeigler, who is continuing the rehab of the torn ACL he suffered in February, is not expected to play in the scrimmage. The junior point guard has been going through preseason practices with the Vols this month, though.
Injuries slowed Tennessee during preseason workouts, with both sophomore forward Tobe Awaka and freshman guard Cameron Carr missing time while in concussion protocol and freshman forward JP Estrella sidelined earlier this month with a fractured finger. Awaka, Carr and Estrella are all available for the exhibition.
Quotables: Rick Barnes and Tom Izzo
Tom Izzo: “Not to be one of those coaches that just is trying to motivate his team, but if we play like we did last night, we’ll get our butts kicked. I mean this team is the deepest, best team I’ve seen in a while. Deepest. I mean ,like 12 deep. And we played them last year, so we know about them. Very well-coached, but they’ve got a lot back and they’re a physical team. so we have to rebound better … this team we’re playing is definitely a top-five team.”
Rick Barnes: “I think we’re looking to see how many guys we can get with a sustained effort. Obviously you would expect your older guys to be able to go out and play through cardio fatigue more. I think the young guys will be a little bit anxious. I think we’re all ready to play outside competition, but hoping to see that we can do some of the things that do a lot of things that we practice. But we’ll play hard because we know Michigan State’s gonna play hard.