No. 4 Tennessee resumes SEC play at home against Georgia

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - The Vols are coming off their two-game road trip undefeated, and now the fourth-ranked Tennessee men’s basketball team is back home for a pair of contests this week. The action starts with a matchup against Georgia on Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET.

The Vols have won four of the last five meetings against Georgia, including three straight in Knoxville. Wednesday’s matchup will be the only time these two teams meet during the 2022-23 season.

During conference play, Tennessee leads the SEC in scoring defense (57.1 ppg), field-goal percentage (.488), 3-point percentage (.365), FT percentage (.810), rebounding defense (28.7), assists (17.4), and assist/turnover ratio (1.4).

Zakai Zeigler, who’s coming off back-to-back starts for the Vols, is averaging a league-best 7.3 assists during SEC play. Despite having a backup role for more than half of the regular season, he still averages the second-most minutes among this year’s Vols (29.1 mpg).

Meanwhile, Julian Phillips is the reigning SEC Freshman of the Week after averaging 14 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists in road wins at Mississippi State and at LSU.

After Wednesday’s matchup with Georgia, Tennessee takes a brief break from conference play to welcome Texas to town for the SEC/Big 12 Challenge on Saturday.

Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. ET on ESPN. ESPN College GameDay will also be live from Knoxville on Saturday, broadcasting from Thompson-Boling Arena starting at 11 a.m. ET.

WVLT will host its own special, Big Orange Tip Off beginning at 10:30a.m. on WVLT to preview this SEC/Big 12 match-up.

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