Show Me My Opponent, 2023-24: Tennessee Tech
Tennessee must battle a school with a Popeyes closer to its downtown than Knoxville
Tennessee begins their 2023-24 campaign against, per KenPom, their lowest-rated opponent on the schedule. Tennessee Tech is in the 300s on the site, which is presumably logical after going 16-17, finishing #288 last year, and losing three of the four best players from that team. Also, this makes it a little more logical.
This looks like a very bad basketball team. Things have not always been this bad, given eight Top 200 finishes from 2000-2016, but they are very bad now. My only other comment is that Seth Fisher came up with the Bo Ryan Index years ago, which is a measurement of how many pictures in the first three rows of your Google Image results show you a coach that is “enraged, incredulous, furious, or are expressing something otherwise unpleasant.” Bo Ryan’s Bo Ryan Index was permanently in the 90s.
John Pelphrey’s at TTU is a surprising 25%. That is surprising given that John Pelphrey at Arkansas results in 68%, which is exactly how I remember it.
Anyway, basketball.
BELOW THE LINE ($): unbelievably, there are 12 D-1 vs. D-1 games with lower KenPom FanMatch ratings