KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Off to its best start since the 2007-08 season, No. 3 Tennessee opens conference play Saturday afternoon against the Georgia Bulldogs in front of a sold-out crowd at Thompson-Boling Arena.

The game will tip at 3:30 p.m. ET and will be televised on SEC Network and can also be viewed online through WatchESPN. Fans can listen live on their local Vol Network affiliate to hear Bob Kesling and Bert Bertelkamp describing the action.

Tennessee (11-1) picks up the conference slate exactly where it left off. In March, the Vols capped off the regular season with a win over the Bulldogs at home to clinch a share of the SEC regular-season title. Now, UT hopes to win the title in back-to-back years for the first time in program history.

Saturday’s matchup will feature a pair of talented forwards clashing in the paint. Grant Williams leads the Vols in scoring (20.1 ppg), rebounding (8.3 rpg) and steals (1.1 spg) while ranking in second in assists (4.0 apg) and blocks (1.8 bpg). Georgia’s Nicolas Claxton (13.3 ppg, 10.2 rpg, 3.1 bpg, 2.5 apg, 1.3 spg) is the reigning SEC Player of the Week after recording his eighth double-digit scoring performance of the season. The sophomore is one of three D-I players–and the only one at a Power 5 school–who leads his team in rebounds, assists, blocks and steals.

“Without question, this is the best fanbase I have ever been around,” said head coach Rick Barnes. “You talk about 21,000 fans for Tennessee Tech and almost 20,000 for Wake Forest both around the holidays. We already have some games sold out. I can tell you this is the best fanbase I have been around. I can tell you we appreciate it as a program. I know our players love it too.”

The anticipation by the fans for this exciting season was felt early on when the Kentucky and West Virginia games sold out shortly after single-game tickets went on sale. Now, all Saturday home games are sold out and limited tickets are left for the remainder of Tennessee’s home slate. Visit AllVols.com soon if you’re interested in buying tickets for one of our remaining conference games.

THE SERIES
• Tennessee leads the all-time series with Georgia, 95-60, dating to 1913. This is the 156th meeting overall, and the Vols own a 58-15 edge in Knoxville.
• The Volunteers have never been ranked higher than No. 3 for a clash vs. UGA. In 2008, the third-ranked Vols defeated the Bulldogs, 85-69.
• Last season’s home clash with Georgia was an historic night for the Big Orange, as the Vols clinched a share of the SEC regular-season championship.

A WIN WOULD…
• Extend Tennessee’s win streak to eight games.
• Extend UT’s home win streak to 17 games. It’s the longest such streak of the Barnes era.
• Preserve Tennessee’s perfect record this season at Thompson-Boling Arena.

STORYLINES
• Over their last three games, the Vols are averaging 87.3 points while shooting .583 as a team.
• Tennessee is off to its best 12-game start since also starting the season 11-1 in 2007-08.
• With an average attendance of 16,976, Tennessee ranks sixth nationally.
• Tom Crean has coached against the Vols just once previously while head coach at Marquette. His roster featured a guy named Dwyane Wade.
• In four career games vs. Georgia, Jordan Bone (16/2) and Jordan Bowden (12/1) have combined for 28 assists and three turnovers in 210 total minutes played.
• Grant Williams averages 15.8 points and 2.0 blocks in his four previous games played against Georgia.

LAYUPS
• Grant Williams leads the SEC in scoring (20.1 ppg), ranks second in field-goal percentage (.590), fifth in rebounding (8.3 rpg) and seventh in assists (4.0 apg). He also owns the team’s best plus-minus (per 40) rating at +22.96.
• Admiral Schofield is the SEC’s second-leading scorer (18.2 ppg).
• Jordan Bone has logged 97 minutes over UT’s last three games and has totaled 58 points, 26 assists and only four turnovers while also shooting .595 during that span.
• Forwards Kyle Alexander and Grant Williams both grabbed their 500th career rebound in UT’s win over Tennessee Tech last Saturday.
• Junior guard Lamonté Turner, last season’s SEC Co-Sixth Man of the Year, remains sidelined with a left shoulder injury and has appeared in only three games this season.

VOLS SHINE IN PRE-CONFERENCE
• Tennessee owns its best winning-percentage entering SEC play since a 12-1 start to the 2007-08 season, a campaign in which the Vols advanced to the Sweet Sixteen.

SEASON       PRE-CONF RECORD         WIN %
2018-19             11-1      .917
2017-18             9-2        .818
2016-17             7-5        .583
2015-16             7-5        .583
2014-15             8-4        .667
2013-14             9-4        .692
2012-13             8-4        .667
2011-12             7-7        .500
2010-11             10-4      .714
2009-10             12-2      .857
2008-09             9-4        .692
2007-08             12-1      .923

CONFERENCE LID-LIFTERS
• Not since the 2008-09 season has Tennessee faced Georgia in its SEC opener. The Vols won that game, 86-77, in Athens.
• The Volunteers have won 14 of their last 19 SEC openers. The losses came at Arkansas in 2011, vs. Kentucky in 2003, vs. Ole Miss in 2013, at Auburn in 2016 and at Arkansas last season.
• Tennessee is 1-2 in SEC openers under Rick Barnes.
• During his 17-year head coaching tenure at Texas, Barnes was 13-4 in conference openers, including an 8-3 mark on the road.
• The Volunteers 16-15 in SEC home openers at Thompson-Boling Arena. Last season, UT dropped its first home SEC game to Auburn, 94-84, on Jan. 2.

LAST MEETING VS. GEORGIA
•  Tennessee scored the game’s final nine points and survived a thrilling battle with Georgia to win a share of the SEC regular-season championship, 66-61, on March 3, 2018.
•  The SEC title is UT’s first since the 2007-08 season. The Volunteers were picked in the preseason to finish 13th in the 14-team league.
•  With Tennessee leading 61-60 with less than a minute remaining, Kyle Alexander stole a Georgia pass to give the Vols possession. On the other end of the court, Admiral Schofield hit a mid-range jumper with 17 seconds left to push the Volunteers’ lead to three points, 64-61.
•  Following a UGA timeout, Georgia guard William Jackson’s final 3-point attempt with five seconds left fell short. Schofield hit two free throws on the other end to seal the win for the Vols.
•  The 16th-ranked Vols’ 9-0 run to end the game was sparked by a Lamonté Turner 3-pointer that cut a four-point Tennessee deficit with just over two minutes remaining down to one.
•  Sophomore Jordan Bowden made two free throws a minute later to give the Vols the lead that they would not relinquish.
•  Schofield led Tennessee with 23 points. Grant Williams, who fouled out of the game with 3:33 remaining, had 22 points. Schofield and Williams combined for 45 of Tennessee’s 66 points (68 percent).
•  Senior Yante Maten led Georgia with 18 points, while freshman Rayshaun Hammonds added 12.

OLIVER COACHED AT GEORGIA
• Fourth-year UT assistant coach Desmond Oliver was an assistant coach at UGA under Dennis Felton from 2004-09.
• During Oliver’s tenure in Athens with Felton—who himself was once an assistant under Rick Barnes at Providence and Clemson from 1992-98—the Bulldogs made consecutive postseason appearances in 2007 (NIT) and 2008 (NCAA Tournament).
• Oliver was on UGA’s staff during one of the most memorable conference tourney runs in recent history when Georgia won two games on the same day to capture the 2008 SEC Tournament championship.

MEMORABLE VOL PERFORMANCES AGAINST GEORGIA
• Austin “Red” Robbins had what may have been the best performance in UT history at the time with 35 points and 20 rebounds on Feb. 7, 1966, as UT routed Georgia 100-71 at old Armory-Fieldhouse in Knoxville.
• Bernard King made 18 field goals at Georgia on Feb. 1, 1975. King had 42 points and 18 rebounds in that 105-69 Vol victory.
• The 12,666 paying customers who packed UT’s Stokely Athletics Center on Feb. 10, 1979, got their money’s worth, as Ellenwood, Georgia, native Reggie Johnson totaled 36 points and 13 rebounds, playing every minute of a three-overtime thriller as UT topped Georgia 87-81. Terry Crosby also played all 55 minutes, adding 21 points
• Future NBA Lottery Pick Marcus Haislip paced the Vols with 18 points and 11 rebounds, while Vincent Yarbrough added 17 points as UT outscored the 16th-ranked Dawgs 11-3 in overtime to take a 71-63 win in Knoxville on March 2, 2002.

MEARS OWNED THE DAWGS
• Legendary Tennessee head coach Ray Mears was at his best against Georgia. Mears was 25-4 vs. UGA during his tenure on The Hill (1962-78).

UT Athletics

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee head coach Holly Warlick met with the media on Wednesday in advance of Thursday night’s SEC opener at Auburn. The Lady Vols and the Tigers will tip at 6:02 p.m. CT (7:02 ET) in a game streamed by SECN+.

The No. 10/10 Lady Vols concluded their non-conference slate 11-1 with an 84-76 home victory over Belmont on Sunday afternoon and will face a 12-1 Auburn team in a tough road environment. A Tigers team that has been known for its pressure defense has become a better offensive unit in 2018-19, averaging 82.0 points per game while giving up 62.7.  Those numbers look very similar to a UT squad that is averaging 82.8 points and allowing 64.2 thus far, but Auburn features a more experienced starting lineup (Sr./Sr./R-Jr./Jr./So.) than the Lady Vols have (Sr./Sr./So./So./Fr.).

Tennessee features quality wins over No. 12 Texas (10-2), Oklahoma State (9-2) and Clemson (9-4) as well as stout mid-major programs UAB (12-1) and Belmont (7-4), plus a 10-point loss to No. 8/9 Stanford (10-1). Auburn defeated North Carolina (9-5) and New Mexico (10-1) for its top wins while losing by three at No. 25 Iowa State (10-2). The Tigers also beat Oklahoma, which is 4-7 but led No. 1 UConn by 13 before eventually falling to the Huskies.

Tennessee Head Coach Holly Warlick

On what she expects out of Auburn:
“I think we’re just two very similar teams. They’re athletic, rely on defensive pressure, full court pressure, rebounding. They play hard. They’re just like us, so it’s always interesting when we play Auburn. And they’re having a great year.”

On Auburn’s shooting:
“They’re shooting the ball so much better this year. It makes it difficult because not only are they three-point shooters, they penetrate. It makes it really, really difficult to defend. And they’re playing with a lot of confidence; they’re 11-1. I watched the game they lost and that was early on.”

On what the team has learned in previous games that they will apply to the game plan against Auburn:
“We’ve got to get better guarding threes. We’re progressively getting better, but we’ve guarded that all year. It seems like all year we’ve guarded teams that can shoot the three and penetrate. We’ve got to keep people out of the paint, and we’ve got to get in peoples’ faces on the three, and we’ve worked on it every day, but it’s difficult. Defense is difficult; it’s hard. It takes a lot of heart and a lot of energy, and we’ve got to get back to understanding the importance on the defensive end.”

On Tennessee’s improved three-point shooting:
“I think kids have gotten in the gym and worked on it. They worked on it this summer. They continue to get in the gym now and work on it, so I think you’re seeing it pay dividends on the floor. When you get in and shoot reps, it gives you confidence to shoot them in the game.”

On Tennessee averaging five more points a game than last year and if it’s a result of the incoming freshmen contributing or the pace at which UT plays:
“I think it’s probably a combination of both. We signed some really strong offensive kids and they fit into the offense. I think our offense, we’re distributing the ball a lot better (than last year). The ball isn’t getting stuck in one person’s hands. And when that happens we’re getting great looks. The players that are here, again, we’re reaping the benefits of them working in the summer.”

On guards driving to the basket:
“We’ve worked on the dribble drive a lot, and we’re doing that. We’re doing that against zones and against man. In the past we haven’t been doing that, we just moved the ball around. (Now) we’re attacking the defense. And that does start with Evina. She’s really attacking the basket, and she’s learning to pull up and shoot or kick out. We’ve done a great job of trying to get them in gaps and understand you can screen and you can drive on zones just as much as you can on man-to-man.”

On the team averaging 20 assists per game:
“It’s a combination of (people). Westbrook is doing it.  I think Jaz Massengill has come in and distributed the ball. We’ve talked a lot about getting great shots instead of just good shots, and sometimes that means making the extra pass.  I see that that’s helped us down the road in terms of getting great shots, and that adds to assists.”

On SEC teams having more non-conference losses than in years past:
“I don’t even look at the records of SEC teams when we go into SEC play because every team ramps up their game, their team. It’s just a different ballgame, and you know what you’re going to get in the SEC. And it’s tough; it’s hard. It’s a grind; it’s grueling. I don’t care if they’re 0-10. It’s a tough league to play in, and I can say that because I’ve been in it.”

On the difficulty of starting SEC play on the road:
“I’d love to start at home. I’d love to play every game here. It is difficult, but we’ve played some tough games on the road. We played at Texas. We played at Oklahoma State. It’s going to help us. It’ll be a tough environment (at Auburn), but we seem to be a little more focused on the road, so we’ll take that. We’ve struggled down there at times, but we’ve played really well down there at times. I hope the team that plays really well shows up.”

On Auburn’s defense posing a challenge:
“Obviously we have to take care of the basketball. Keep your dribble, don’t panic. Auburn speeds you up, kind of like us. They speed you up and make you panic, and we can’t do that. If we’re going to turn it over, it needs to be something going toward the basket. We can’t do it in the front court and give them easy shots. And that’s what they thrive on. That’s what we thrive on, so that gets both teams pumped up. We have to be really mindful of that, and our freshmen do too. They haven’t seen the pressure that Auburn is going to put on us.”

On if she expected freshmen to contribute as much as they have:
“I don’t know that I expected it. I expected them to come in and contribute. That’s awesome. We need them to do that in league play. Look at us, we’re young. We’re a majority of freshmen and sophomores, and that group is the main group we’re playing. They’ve just got to use what we’ve put them through. They’ve got great experience. We’ve got 12 games under our belt. The majority of them played good minutes in them, so we need them to step up and rely on what we’ve done to help us going forward.”

On UT’s improved three-point shooting:
“If we’re hitting threes, that’s great. But if things aren’t working, we’ve got to adjust and we have to adapt.  I know we can get better of going from a timeout to discussing things to back on the court, and that’s just a learning process we have to go through. They’re smart basketball players, and they understand when their three-point shooting isn’t working, they’ve got to get to the basket. And that’s what’s really good about Meme Jackson, Zaay Green and Westbrook – all of those guys who shoot threes, they have the capability of getting to the basket as well.”

On the fast pace Auburn plays:
“We do like a fast game, but we don’t want them to speed us up and us turn it over. We want to speed them up and we want to play fast, but when we’re getting pressed we don’t want to just turn and throw and turn it over. So we want to attack, yes. But if we’re not attacking and we’re turning it over, we’ve got to pull back and be a little more deliberate with the basketball.”

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