Tennessee Basketball Preview vs Kansas State: Live Stream, Game Time, TV Info for Vols and Wildcats

Tennessee basketball hosts Kansas State in the SEC vs Big 12 challenge Saturday. Here is the official preview for the UT Volunteers and KSU Wildcats.

Coming off of their huge win over the Kentucky Wildcats on Tuesday, Tennessee basketball takes the court again with another huge opportunity on Saturday afternoon.

Rick Barnes’s Vols will host the Kansas State Wildcats as part of the SEC/Big 12 challenge on Saturday.

Despite only being 11-9 and 4-4 in the SEC, Tennessee basketball is ranked No. 47 in the RPI due to its No. 3 ranked strength of schedule.

That is how huge the young team’s win over Kentucky was on Tuesday.

By the way, because one of their wins is against a Division II school, the RPI only recognizes 10 wins for the Vols.

Against Kansas State, they play a team that is No. 45 in the RPI and also on the bubble at 15-5 overall. So they are as desperate for this victory as the Vols are.

Here is the information you need for the game.

Kansas State Wildcats at Tennessee Volunteers

When: Saturday, Jan. 28 at 2 p.m. E.T.

Where: Thompson-Boling Arena; Knoxville, Tenn.

TV: ESPN2

Live Stream: WatchESPN

Line: Kansas State -2

Tennessee has already had good luck with one group of Wildcats at Thompson-Boling Arena this week, but they have demonstrated all year that they have trouble dealing with success.

Kansas State is not a team where you want to have that type of trouble.

Currently, the Vols have five wins against Top 100 RPI teams, but East Tennessee State is one of them, and they are barely in. Meanwhile, Tennessee is in danger of having a bad loss as UT Chattanooga is barely hanging on in the Top 100.

And among those five wins, only one of them is against a Top 50 RPI team.

All of this means that Kansas State is a huge game for Tennessee Saturday. It’s another chance for the Vols to get a quality win, and their schedule strength will even go further up.

With the Auburn Tigers and Mississippi State Bulldogs up next, their strength of schedule will drop a bit. So this is a win they really need to have if they want to be in the NCAA Tournament mix at the end of the season.

Losing will make things much tougher.