Tennessee Basketball: Vols Preview, Live Stream, TV Info for SEC Opener vs Texas A&M Aggies

Men’s Tennessee basketball opens Southeastern Conference play at Texas A&M. Here is the live stream and television info for the UT Volunteers vs the Aggies.

After an up-and-down non-conference schedule that included a 7-5 record and four games against Top 25 teams, Tennessee basketball is set to begin SEC play in Rick Barnes’s second year.

The Vols open conference play Thursday night in College Station against the Texas A&M Aggies.

Texas A&M is a dangerous team with an 8-3 record that includes very close losses to the USC Trojans, UCLA Bruins, and Arizona Wildcats.

Both the Vols and the Aggies hope to be NCAA Tournament teams this year and played difficult non-conference schedules with those expectations.

That should help them down the stretch, but this is a key game both teams could use in the process. Here is all the information you need to know for the Vols and Aggies.

Tennessee Volunteers at Texas A&M Aggies

When: Thursday, Dec. 29 at 7 p.m. ET

Where: Reed Arena; College Station, Texas

TV: SEC Network

Live Stream: WatchESPN

Line: Texas A&M -8.5

Right now, Tennessee basketball is ranked No. 83 in the RPI. That’s a very good spot to be in considering their record.

And it comes with the No. 30 ranked strength of schedule. Given that conference play hasn’t even begun, that ranking is likely to continue to go up the rest of the year.

As a result, the Vols should have a strong case to get into the Big Dance if they can get to 18 wins.

It helps that all five of their losses right now are to Top 100 RPI teams, four to Top 50 RPI teams, and three to Top 25 RPI teams.

However, they also have no wins against Top 100 RPI teams. So they still have no quality wins, and that has got to improve if they are going to make any kind of statement.

They have their first chance with this game, on the road against a very solid Aggies team.

Should Barnes’s team pull this one out, they will be in great shape going forward in SEC play.