KU basketball vs. Tennessee: Lineups, tipoff time, TV info, facts and figures

The details

When/where: 5 p.m., Saturday at Thompson-Boling Arena, Knoxville, Tennessee

TV/radio: ESPN; WHB (810 AM)

Projected lineups

About No. 15 Kansas (11-5, 5-4): KU is 4-1 all-time versus Tennessee. The Jayhawks won the last meeting, 74-68, last season at Allen Fieldhouse. KU is is 0-1 versus UT in Knoxville. The Jayhawks fell, 76-68, on Jan. 10, 2010. … KU coach Bill Self is 4-1 all-time versus Tennessee — 2-0 against Rick Barnes-coached Vols teams. Self as KU’s coach went 15-6 against Barnes’ Texas Longhorns for an all-time record of 17-6 vs. Barnes in head to head matchups at KU. Self’s Illinois Fighting Illini lost to Barnes’ Longhorns when Self was coach of the Big 10 school. … Kansas is 4-3 against ranked teams in 2020-21. Eight of Kansas’ last nine losses have been to ranked squads. KU is 106-55 against AP-ranked opponents in the 18-year Self era. … Kansas has won two games while scoring 60 or fewer points. … Kansas is 10-0 when leading with five minutes left in regulation. … TCU committed 22 turnovers versus KU on Thursday, the most by a Kansas opponent this season. … Ochai Agbaji has scored in double figures in 15 of 16 games. … David McCormack has scored in double figures in eight games, including five against Big 12 opponents. … Mitch Lightfoot has taken seven charges on defense. Lightfoot had three blocks versus TCU and ranks 16th on KU’s all-time blocks list with 114. … Marcus Garrett ranks 20th in steals at KU with 156.

About No. 18 Tennessee (11-3, 5-3): Tennessee’s all-time record against members of the Big 12 stands at 14-18. ... Rick Barnes is 116-67 in six years as head coach at Tennessee. He’s 720-381 in 34 years of coaching. … Tennessee has had five games canceled and one postponed because of COVID-19. … Barnes learned on Nov. 23 that his Nov. 22 COVID-19 test was positive. He was among multiple positives within the UT program, which led to a two-week shutdown. ... The Vols snapped a two-game losing streak by upending Mississippi State, 56-53 Tuesday in Knoxville. … In addition to MSU, the Vols have defeated Colorado (56-47), Cincinnati (65-56), Appalachian State (79-38), Tennessee Tech (103-49), Saint Joseph’s (102-66), USC Upstate (80-60), Missouri (73-53), Arkansas (79-74), Texas A&M (68-54) and Vanderbilt (81-61). The Vols lost a rematch with Missouri (73-64) and also fell to Alabama (71-63) and Florida (75-49). … Tennessee’s opponents have committed turnovers on 24.7% of their possessions. ... UT has averaged 72.7 points per game and held opponents to 59.3 ppg. ... Freshman Jaden Springer, who missed two games because of an ankle injury, returned to score nine points while playing 25 minutes versus MSU on Tuesday. The Vols went 0-2 without Springer. In UT’s only other loss, an in-game ankle injury versus Alabama limited him to only five minutes played. … Vols senior John Fulkerson has been named to the Wooden Award’s midseason Top-25 list. … Reigning SEC defensive player of the year Yves Pons has 20 blocks through UT’s first eight SEC games. Pons has 100 blocks in his last 45 games. … UT starts four lefthanded shooters: Fulkerson, Pons, Vescovi and James. Lefthanded shooters off the bench: Victor Bailey, Davonte Gaines and Cole Morris. … Tennessee assistant coach Kim English was a 1,500-point scorer and an all-Big 12 performer during his college career at Missouri from 2008-12. …

Gary Bedore

The Kansas City Star

816-234-4068

Gary Bedore covers KU basketball for The Kansas City Star. He has written about the Jayhawks since 1978 — during the Ted Owens, Larry Brown, Roy Williams and Bill Self eras. He has won the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year award and KPA writing awards.