Show Me My Opponent, 2023-24: Tarleton State
40 minutes to Christmas
EDITOR’S NOTE: Accidentally published this like 12 hours early. Oops.
Tennessee draws Tarleton State to town, but more importantly, they welcome Billy Gillispie (well, his program) back to Thompson-Boling Arena. For the youths, Billy G was briefly the coach at Kentucky. He was easily their worst coach in decades, but hey, nobody’s perfect. More importantly for you, he had one game - you know the game - that anyone bothers to remember.
Unfortunately for the purposes of this intro, Billy is battling some health issues and is away from the team; they’re under an interim named Joseph Jones, who’s gone 6-1 in BCG’s absence. Because this is a much smaller world than we all realize, Jones played at Texas A&M in the mid-2000s…where he shared this magazine cover with D.J. Augustin, who played for a Texas team coached by Rick Barnes.
This is the final game before Christmas, which has proven to be either a real bugaboo or a great opportunity to make everyone happy depending on the team or even the year. For instance: home teams favored by 15+ went 15-24-2 ATS in the date range of Dec. 19-24 last year. In 2021-22: 27-14 ATS. In 2019-20: 25-13-1. Under Rick Barnes, Tennessee has generally roundhouse-kicked these teams into the shadow realm with relative ease. But: you never know. Here’s hoping I do, in fact, know.
BELOW THE LINE ($): A preview for just $15/year. Merry Christmas!