Washington basketball takes on Tennessee in Toronto

Washington basketball is 2-0 and heading into another tough matchup at a neutral site against an always tough Tennessee Volunteers team

Washington basketball has a tough slate of non-conference games this season and going on the road to play Tennessee in Toronto in the second game of the Naismith Classic will not be an easy one.

The Volunteers are currently averaging 81 points per game, and the Husky defense, which has played exceptionally well this season will have to hold them well under that number, and if the Dawgs have shown us anything through their first two games, it’s that they’re more than capable of playing elite defense, especially down low.

Tennessee has three players scoring in double figures. They are led by senior guard Jordan Bowden averaging 18 points per game, junior guard  Yves Pons is averaging 17, and senior guard Lamonte Turner is around 11. Bowden, Pons, and Turner all started some games last year but primarily came off the bench on a team that was riddled with NBA talent.

Both Bowden and Turner were in the top five in minutes played for Vols last season, and averaged just over ten points a game. Pons is the surprise, last season he averaged just 2.2 points while playing 11.7 minutes per game.

The other two starters on the Volunteers are junior forward John Fulkerson and freshman guard Josiah-Jordan James. Last year, Fulkerson came off the bench in each game averaging 3.3 points while James was a McDonalds All-American last year. Don’t forget (how could you?), the Huskies have two of those in Isaiah Stewart and Jaden McDaniels.

James has only scored seven points in the first two games; however, Tennessee is obviously expecting great things from the highly touted freshman.  Fulkerson leads the Volunteers in rebounds with nine per game.

This should be an exciting game for the Dawgs against a really tough opponent, and we should learn a lot about them from this matchup.