Tennessee vs. Missouri preview and prediction

This Saturday, the Missouri Tigers (7-18, 2-11 SEC) travel to Knoxville to take on the Tennessee Volunteers (14-12, 6-7 SEC) at 1 p.m. ET.

The Tigers are trudging into Knoxville just four weeks removed from a 13-game losing streak, the longest in program history. Missouri has gone 2-2 since then, however, and giving the gold and black their first two SEC wins this season.

Junior forward Jordan Barnett is the clear leader for the Tigers, whose roster has just four upperclassman. Barnett’s 12.6 points per game and 6.6 rebounds per game both lead the team. He’s also scored more than 20 points in three of Mizzou’s last four games.

Missouri has also been getting valuable contributions from sophomore forward Kevin Puryear recently — he’s tallied double-digit point outings in three of the Tigers’ last four games. In Mizzou’s first two conference wins last week against Arkansas and Vanderbilt, Puryear had a combined 28 points and 16 rebounds.

Missouri’s most recent game, a 57-54 home loss to Alabama, comes with a sour taste after holding the Tide to just 18 percent shooting in the first half. Alabama went 7 for 9 in the closing minutes of the game, while Missouri shot just 2 for 10. The Tigers will need big games from both Barnett and Puryear if they want to a third conference win.

For Tennessee, emotions couldn’t be much more opposite. The Vols went on a four game win streak, which included wins over Kentucky and Kansas State, but were brought back down to earth since. Tennessee has lost three of its last four — the last two in the forms of a late blown lead to Georgia and a blowout at the hands of No. 13 Kentucky in Rupp Arena.

“The bottom line is we have five games left, I think we have a chance to win all five of them, but if we played like we did tonight we won’t win any of them,” Barnes said after the 25-point loss to the Wildcats.

Freshman forward Grant Williams leads the Vols into the matchup after earning Co-SEC Freshman of the Week honors last week. Williams posted 10 or more points in seven straight contests before the Vols’ loss to Kentucky on Tuesday. Tennessee needs all the help it can get from Williams and senior guard Robert Hubbs III, who leads the team in scoring with an average of 14 points per game.

Prediction

The two teams seem to be trending in opposite directions, with Missouri snapping out of a 13 game-losing streak and winning its first two SEC games. On the other side of things, Tennessee has seen its tournament hopes slowly dwindle away with losses to Mississippi State and Georgia last week.

On Saturday, however, that won’t matter too much. The Tigers will give the Vols some trouble shooting the ball early in the game, but Tennessee will snap out of its shooting slump in the second half and win the game handily, 75-58.

Edited by Nathan Odom

Featured image by Craig Bisacre, courtesy of Tennessee Athletics