KNOXVILLE - The opponent the Tennessee women's basketball team faced Wednesday night and the program it will play Sunday have two things in common.
Both schools' names start with the letter "T" and both entered the week among a group of just five teams in the country averaging 90 or more points per game.
So when the 11th-ranked Lady Volunteers sniffed a few school records during a 131-69 victory over Troy at Thompson-Boling Arena, they got a little taste of the pace that's in store Sunday, when the No. 2 Texas Longhorns visit Knoxville.
"It was a good showing of what we're going to see in our next game," senior wing Jaime Nared said. "Troy is a great team, and I think we played really well together. We had the second-most assists in school history, so little things like that are just showing what kind of team this is.
"I mean, I'm excited to play Texas. They're second-ranked, and we just need to keep getting ready."
Nared led Tennessee (9-0) with 27 points against the Trojans (4-2). The Lady Vols' 38 assists led to the third-highest points total in school history. All nine healthy Tennessee players logged between 18 and 25 minutes against an opponent that prides itself on shooting 100 times per game.
Tennessee's defense held Troy to 29 percent shooting. Doing that against Texas will be a challenge. The Longhorns are first in the country in scoring offense with an average of 93 points per game and eighth in the country by making 49.9 percent of their shots.
"Now, we know Texas is a different beast," Tennessee coach Holly Warlick said. "They can't be number two in the country without being outstanding. We understand that. It's going to be a great challenge for us and something our kids are looking forward to."
The Longhorns are 7-0 and coming off an 81-53 victory over Georgia on Sunday. The Lady Vols expect to see a transition offense and quick triggers from 3-point range, similar to what Troy presented.
But they know the players will be bigger and faster than those they played Wednesday.
"It's early in the season," Nared said. "They're a good team, we're a good team. So I think it'll be a good game. We're going to watch more on them. I don't know if a lot of people have really seen them play. But we're going to see what they like to do, and we're going to play our game and do what we can."
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com.