Kansas basketball’s ideal opponent for the 2021 Big 12/SEC Challenge is the Tennessee Volunteers.
Kansas basketball is already playing a really tough non-conference schedule next season, but why not make it a little bit more difficult? The best matchup for the Jayhawks in the 2021 Big 12/SEC Challenge would be Tennessee since the Volunteers should be a solid team next season.
According the NBC‘s way-too-early top 25 for next season, the Vols are the No. 9 team in the nation. Not only is that the highest ranking out of teams from the SEC, but Kansas will have already played Kentucky in the first game of the season. LSU also just missed the cut for the rankings, so they could be a solid team in the SEC as well.
The Volunteers pulled in an excellent recruiting class that ranks No. 3 in the country according to 247 Sports. The class includes five-star recruits Jaden Springer and Keon Johnson who should see plenty of playing time, especially if Yves Pons decides to remain in the NBA Draft.
Pons was a huge part of the Vols’ success last season, specifically on the defensive end. If Pons decides to return to Tennessee, look for the Volunteers to jump up a few spots in the way-too-early rankings.
Aside from the fact that Tennessee will be one of the strongest teams in their conference, the Jayhawks’ game against the Vols last season was a lot of fun. Kansas came away with a 74-68 victory, and it was a hard-fought game between both teams.
Pons was particularly great against Kansas last season, scoring 24 points and also recording three blocks. Thankfully for Kansas basketball, Devon Dotson also came to play, dropping 22 points and seven assists on the day.
If Kansas basketball got a chance to take on a top ten Volunteers team on the road, that’d be huge for the Jayhawks. It’d give them an excellent chance to get a win against a probable tournament team and possibly even a conference champion, and those types of games are what separate the one-seeds from everyone else.