The Tennessee Volunteers will play their 29th basketball game of the season Tuesday night when they visit Georgia, and they’ve yet to take an opponent lightly.
That’s very bad news for the Bulldogs.
Georgia could be playing its final game at Stegeman Coliseum under fourth-year coach Tom Crean, who showed improvement during his second and third seasons in Athens but will carry a 47-72 overall record and a 15-55 Southeastern Conference mark into the SEC Network-televised contest (6:30 p.m.) against the No. 13 Vols. This season’s Bulldogs are 6-23 overall and 1-17 within the SEC, and a 24th loss would tie Missouri’s 2016-17 team for the most in league history.
“I’ve got a lot of respect for Tom Crean,” Vols seventh-year coach Rick Barnes said Monday afternoon in a news conference. “I’ve known Tom for a long, long time, and I can assure you he’s coaching that basketball team like tomorrow is the Super Bowl. Tom is very competitive, and they really do a good job of spreading you out.
“If you watch them, they’re a well-coached team. They really are.”