KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The 15th-ranked Tennessee men’s basketball team is back in action Tuesday, taking on Presbyterian at 7 p.m. ET at Thompson-Boling Arena.
Fans can catch Tuesday’s game on SEC Network and online or on any mobile device through WatchESPN. WatchESPN can be accessed through the ESPN App, or online at espn.com/watch. Tom Hart (play-by-play) and Dane Bradshaw (analysis) will have the call.
Fans can also listen live on their local Vol Network affiliate to hear Bob Kesling and Bert Bertelkamp calling the action. The broadcast is also available on channel 138 on Sirius, channel 190 on SiriusXM and channel 961 on the SiriusXM app.
Tennessee is coming off of an 80-69 win over Tennessee Tech on Black Friday in which five Vols reached double-digit scoring. Junior forward Olivier Nkamhoua led UT with 18 points on 8-for-8 shooting, while Kennedy Chandler (15 points), John Fulkerson (14), Santiago Vescovi (13) and Brandon Huntley-Hatfield (12) joined him in double figures. Vescovi added seven assists, seven rebounds and three steals to his 13 points, while Chandler had a career-high five steals.
Tuesday marks the fourth all-time meeting between Tennessee and Presbyterian and the third during the Rick Barnes era. The Vols have won the two meetings under Barnes by an average of 37.5 points per game.
Up next, Tennessee heads west to take on Colorado in Boulder, Colorado on Saturday at 2 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on FOX Sports 1. Following that game, the Vols will head straight to New York City ahead of UT’s game against Texas Tech on Tuesday, Dec. 7 at Madison Square Garden.
THE SERIES
• Tennessee leads its all-time series with Presbyterian, 3-0, dating to 2012. All meetings have taken place at Thompson-Boling Arena.
• The Vols’ average margin of victory in this series is 27.0 points.
• Tuesday marks the first time that Tennessee will face the Blue Hose as a top-25 team.
• Tennessee is 26-0 all-time against current members of the Big South Conference. And Rick Barnes is 21-0 against Big South opposition as a head coach.
• The last time these teams met was the 2017-18 season-opener. The Vols’ top-three scorers were Admiral Schofield (22), Jordan Bowden (15) and Grant Williams (14). Williams now plays for the Boston Celtics, while Schofield and Bowden currently play for the G League’s Lakeland Magic and the Long Island Nets, respectively.
SCOUTING REPORT
• Tennessee owned the highest assists average (19.0 apg) and the best assist/turnover ratio (1.53) in the SEC, through Nov. 26.
• The Vols’ 19.0 assists per game rank 12th nationally. Tennessee’s 28 assists in the Nov. 21 win over North Carolina tied a Barnes-era high.
• UT’s backcourt duo of Kennedy Chandler and Santiago Vescovi is averaging 30.2 points, 9.4 rebounds and 7.8 assists per game while shooting .419 from 3-point range.
• Junior Olivier Nkamhoua was a perfect 8-for-8 from the field for a team-high 18 points Friday against Tennessee Tech. He has made his last 10 field-goal attempts.
• Vols junior Josiah-Jordan James has been sidelined with a left (shooting) hand injury.
• 44 percent of Tennessee’s points this season have been scored by first-year Vols (178 of 406).
LAYUP LINES
• Later this week, the Vols embark on a six-day, two-game, 3,909-mile road trip that takes them from Rocky Top to Boulder, Colorado, and then to New York City before returning home.
• Saturday’s game at Colorado will be just the second game the Vols have ever played in The Centennial State. Tennessee logged a 64-63 win at Colorado in Boulder on Dec. 8, 1981.
A WIN WOULD…
• Extend Tennessee’s home win streak to five games, dating to last season.
• Preserve Tennessee’s perfect record against current members of the Big South Conference.
ABOUT PRESBYTERIAN
• Founded in 1880 and located in Clinton, South Carolina, Presbyterian College is a member of the Big South Conference.
• Presbyterian is coached by Quinton Ferrell, who is in his third season as head coach after having previously served as an assistant on the Blue Hose’s staff from 2007-12.
• Presbyterian enters Tuesday’s game against Tennessee coming off of winning the University of New Orleans Classic title, as the Blue Hose went 3-0 in New Orleans with wins over VMI, New Orleans and Central Arkansas.
• The Blue Hose’s two losses this season have come at the hands of major conference teams—at Clemson on Nov. 9 and at Cincinnati on Nov. 18.
• Sophomore guard Rayshon Harrison leads Presbyterian in scoring (21.3 ppg) and assists (2.4 apg) and is second on the team in rebounds (5.4 rpg).
• Through the games of Nov. 27, Harrison’s 21.3 points per game are tied for 16th in Division I.
• The 2021 Big South Freshman of the Year, Harrison was named Preseason All-Big South First Team in a vote by the league’s head coaches and a media panel. As a freshman in 2020-21, Harrison was the third highest scoring freshman in the nation, averaging a team-leading 17.3 points per game.
• Presbyterian’s 16.3 offensive rebounds per game this season rank third in all of Division I.
• Tennessee and Presbyterian are meeting for the fourth time ever and third time during the Rick Barnes era. The Vols have won the two meetings under Barnes by an average of 37.5 points per game.
LAST MEETING WITH PRESBYTERIAN
• Tennessee used a 28-0 run in the first half to fuel its way to an 88-53 victory over Presbyterian in its season-opener on Nov. 10, 2017, at Thompson-Boling Arena in front of 15,047 fans.
• After Presbyterian scored the opening basket of the game, the Vols did not yield a point over the next nine minutes to help build a 46-14 lead going into halftime. UT also kept the Blue Hose scoreless over the final 2:11 of the opening frame while holding them to 26 percent shooting.
• Jordan Bowden led the way offensively for the Vols in the first half, shooting a perfect 6-for-6 from the field and 3-for-3 from 3-point range. Bowden finished with 15 points and five rebounds.
• Admiral Schofield went for a game-high and career-high-tying 22 points on 8-of-12 shooting while posting five rebounds. Grant Williams added 14 points and a team-high seven boards.
• Redshirt freshman forward John Fulkerson dished out a team-high five assists in his first action since suffering a season-ending injury in Tennessee’s 10th game last season (Dec. 15, 2016).
• The victory marked the 400th home win of UT head coach Rick Barnes‘ head coaching career.
STEALS SURPRISINGLY SURGING
• Tennessee is logging steals at its highest rate of the Barnes era, averaging 10.0 per game.
• For UT’s first six seasons under Barnes, the Vols posted impressive blocked-shot totals while employing “solid” perimeter defense—very little gambling and jumping passing lanes.
• Through Barnes’ first six seasons on Rocky Top, Tennessee averaged 6.0 steals per game. And UT’s highest per-game average during that span was 7.3 steals per game last season (with two first-round NBA Draft picks manning the wings).
FULKERSON CLOSING IN ON VOLS’ GAMES PLAYED RECORD
• By taking advantage of a sixth (COVID) year this season, John Fulkerson appears poised to break Tennessee’s program record for career games played.
RANK PLAYER, YEARS GP
1 Wayne Chism, 2006-10 142
2 Cameron Tatum, 2008-12 138
T-3 John Fulkerson, 2016-Pres. 136
T-3 Josh Richardson, 2011-15 136
5 Kyle Alexander, 2015-19 135
T-6 Jordan Bowden, 2016-20 132
T-6 Admiral Schofield, 2015-19 132
ESPN EXPERTS RATE VOLS AMONG LEADERS IN PRO TALENT
• ESPN draft analysts Jonathan Givony and Mike Schmitz in mid-November ranked which teams have the most talent in the college game in 2021-22. They aimed to identify teams with “the most players who will eventually make money playing basketball, whether in the NBA or elsewhere.”
• Tennessee was rated fifth on their list. The top four teams were Duke, Gonzaga, Auburn and UCLA.
According to Givony: “Rick Barnes has made Knoxville a destination for NBA scouts with the success he has had in developing pros. He has one of his deepest, most talented teams ever this season.”
SENIOR CITIZEN FULKY SEEKING COMMUNITY SERVICE CREDIT
• 24-year-old super senior John Fulkerson was asked after Tennessee’s Nov. 26 game against Tennessee Tech about playing alongside four freshmen during the first half of the eventual win.
• Fulkerson’s response: “I’m trying to get community service hours in for babysitting.”
• Fulkerson went on to explain that the four-freshmen lineup made him think back to his true freshman season (2016-17), when he and fellow freshmen Grant Williams, Jordan Bone and Jordan Bowden joined senior Robert Hubbs III on the court at times.
-UT Athletics
