LINEUP NOTES

Florida A&M:

• Starting lineup was the same for the first five games but they’ve unlocked a NEW LINEUP as part of their Kansas State DLC pack on Monday. By the way, they played at Kansas State on Monday. Reaves/Melton/Randolph/Moragne/Desir.
• A&M goes only eight deep, but all eight play at least 15 minutes per game, with no player topping Randolph’s 31. It’s…actually kind of similar to Tennessee?

Tennessee:

• Turner/Bowden/JJJ/Pons/Fulkerson, obvi.
• Couple of encouraging things from the Northwest Florida State College Weekend Tour For a Tournament That Seems Flimsy At Best: Tennessee went nine-deep against Florida State, getting Davonte Gaines 15 minutes and Drew Pember 6. (Jalen Johnson only got 2.) For the VCU game, it was more even – Pember didn’t play, but all of Johnson, Gaines, and Nkamhoua got 13-14 minutes. I think Tennessee is slowly developing at least an eight-man rotation and probably nine, though Pember will be the first to fall out for SEC play, I’d guess.

KEY MATCHUPS

None? Per Torvik’s PORPAGATU metric, which is a little like Value Over Replacement Player but for college basketball, Evins Desir is A&M’s best player at +1.3…which would place him fifth in Tennessee’s rotation. If you go by D-PRPG, which is minutes-weighted, he’s sixth-best. They simply can’t match up, so I don’t know that there’s anything to put here, really.

Actually: Will + Wife vs. Seasonal Illnesses. What am I supposed to do with this cough? I’ve taken Mucinex DM for four days now and still feel like a fresh turd. I’m going to get murdered if I wake up both myself and Wife at 4:30 AM in a coughing fit again. I hear Delsym is useful but I need something that knocks out both congestion AND cough while not pumping me full of Tylenol. Do they make this?

PREDICTION

Tennessee 79, Florida A&M 50.