Twelfth-ranked Tennessee hits the hardwood in Thompson-Boling Arena for the final time this season on Tuesday, taking on Arkansas for Senior Night at 9 p.m. ET.
 
Fans can catch Tuesday’s game on ESPN2 and online or on any mobile device through WatchESPN. WatchESPN can be accessed through the ESPN App, or online at espn.com/watch. Karl Ravech (play-by-play), Jimmy Dykes (analyst) and Marty Smith (reporter) will have the call.
 
Fans can also listen live on their local Vol Network affiliate to hear Bob Kesling and Bert Bertelkamp describing the action.
 
Tennessee (21-8, 10-6 SEC) is coming off a 40-point home win over South Carolina on Saturday, 85-45. Josiah-Jordan James returned after missing four straight games due to injury to score a team-high 18 points, while Zakai Zeigler had his fifth points/assists double-double of the season with 13 points and a career-high 11 assists.
 
The Vols have won five of their last seven meetings with Arkansas and split the pair of meetings last year. Tennessee has won four straight home games against the Razorbacks, including a 78-74 win last season—also contested on Senior Day.
 
Up next, Tennessee finishes its regular season Saturday on the road, taking on Auburn for the second time this season. Tip off is set for 2 p.m. ET on ESPN.
 
THE SERIES
• Tennessee leads its all-time series with Arkansas, 24-22, dating to 1936.
• The Vols own a 15-4 advantage when the series is contested in Knoxville, with Tennessee winning each of the last four meetings at Thompson-Boling Arena.
• UT has won five of the last seven meetings overall in this series.
• Rick Barnes is 3-2 in head-to-head coaching matchups with Eric Musselman.
• Tuesday marks the fourth straight meeting in this series for which Tennessee has been ranked No. 16 or higher in the AP Top 25.
• Tennessee will conduct a Senior Day ceremony at midcourt prior to tipoff Tuesday. This is the second year in a row that the Vols’ Senior Day opponent is Arkansas.
• No strangers to raucous crowds, Arkansas and Tennessee rank third and fourth in the nation, respectively, in average home attendance this season.
 
SCOUTING REPORT
• The Vols remain at No. 3 in the NCAA’s NET ratings after holding steady at No. 2 from Jan. 3 through Feb. 8. Tennessee has six Q1 wins.
• Tennessee and Baylor are the only teams in the country that own at least three wins over teams currently ranked in the top 10 of the NET ratings.
• Tennessee this season has a program-record 12 wins by a margin of 20 points or more. That includes five such victories over SEC foes.
• During SEC play, Tennessee leads the league in scoring defense (58.8 ppg), assists per game (16.7) and assist/turnover ratio (1.54).
• Zakai Zeigler’s 160 total assists lead the SEC and rank second nationally among underclassmen. He already has the 10th-most assists ever by a Vol in a season. NBA Draft pick Kennedy Chandler finished with 161 assists in 34 games last year.
• Josiah-Jordan James returned from a four-game injury absence Saturday and sparked a dominant win over South Carolina, scoring a team-high 18 points in 21 minutes.
• The Vols haven’t played a game with the rotation fully healthy since Feb. 8.
 
THE NATION’S BEST DEFENSE
• For the 14th straight week, the Volunteers own the best adjusted defensive efficiency in the country per KenPom, allowing only 86.9 points per 100 possessions.
• Tennessee owns Division I’s best 3-point defense (.247), second-best field-goal percentage defense (.359) and the nation’s third-best scoring defense (56.7 ppg).
• 12 times this season, the Vols have held their opponents to 50 points or less. No other Division I team has more than 10 such performances.
• Only four teams have reached the 70-point mark against these Vols.
• Only eight opposing players have scored 20 or more points against the Vols this season.
• In SEC home games, Tennessee forces 13.9 turnovers per game and owns a +4.3 turnover margin. SEC teams are shooting .362 from the field and .269 from 3-point range this season at Thompson-Boling Arena.
 
ABOUT ARKANSAS
• Arkansas (19-10, 8-8 SEC) is coming off an 86-83 loss at No. 2 Alabama on Saturday in a game that it led for more than half of regulation.
• The Razorbacks started 1-5 in SEC play but have now won seven of their past 10 conference games.
• Currently ranked No. 14 in the NET rankings, Arkansas is 3-7 in Quadrant 1 games—owning wins over San Diego State at a neutral site, Texas A&M at home and at Kentucky.
• Arkansas is 2-7 in road games this season, with the lone wins coming at South Carolina and Kentucky.
• Consensus top-three recruit in the nation freshman guard Nick Smith Jr. has provided a boost for the Razorbacks, returning to the lineup after missing 13 straight games due to injury. In total, Smith Jr. has missed 19 games this season due to injury.
• Smith Jr., who is averaging 20.0 ppg over Arkansas’s last three games, saw just a combined 21 minutes of action in his first two games back against Mississippi State and Texas A&M on Feb. 11 and Feb. 15, but is averaging 33.3 minutes during the last three games.
• Freshman guard Anthony Black, another projected lottery pick, is also one of five Razorbacks to average double-figure scoring with 12.7 ppg and a team-leading 4.3 apg. Black was ranked as the No. 1 point guard in the Class of 2022 by 247Sports.
• Junior guard Ricky Council IV, a Wichita State transfer, is Arkansas’ leading scorer at 16.8 ppg. Council IV was the 2022 AAC Sixth Man of the Year at Wichita State.
• Through the games of Feb. 26, Arkansas ranks No. 15 in KenPom.com’s ratings. The Razorbacks rank No. 11 in adjusted defensive efficiency and No. 49 in adjusted offensive efficiency.
 
LAST CLASH WITH ARKANSAS
• No. 13 Tennessee defeated No. 14 Arkansas, 78-74, at Thompson-Boling Arena on March 5, 2022.
• With the victory, head coach Rick Barnes earned the 750th win of his head coaching career.
• Tennessee wrapped up a perfect 16-0 regular season at home with a terrific 3-point shooting performance. The Big Orange connected on 12-of-18 (.667) from deep and made 23-of-50 (.460) from the floor.
• Kennedy Chandler was a big part of UT’s 3-point shooting success, sinking 5-of-6 (.833) from deep.
• Josiah-Jordan James totaled 12 points, seven rebounds, three steals and a block.
• Santiago Vescovi played 37 minutes and was 3-of-4 on 3-point attempts.
• Zakai Zeigler was a spark off the bench, finishing with 13 points, a then-career-high six assists and five rebounds.
• Arkansas made a furious comeback in the second half and was propelled by 16 offensive rebounds. JD Notae led the Razorback offense with 20 points, five rebounds and four assists.
• Tennessee shot out of the gates, taking the lead 13 seconds into the game and never surrendering it. UT scored 13 points before the first media timeout. The Vols shot 6-of-7 from 3-point range in the first 15 minutes of the half. Overall, the Big Orange connected on 50 percent of their field goals in the half, going into the locker room with a 50-29 lead.
 
MUSSELMAN HAS FAMILY TIES TO FORMER UT COACH RAY MEARS
• Eric Musselman has said that some of his approach to marketing comes from popular former Tennessee head coach Ray Mears.
• Musselman’s father, the late Bill Musselman, was a longtime NCAA, ABA and NBA head coach who played collegiately for Mears at Wittenberg College in Ohio, enrolling in 1958.
• Bill Musselman, and later Eric, took note of Mears penchant for showmanship and entertainment to boost program interest and generate fan support.
 
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
• Just as senior wing Josiah-Jordan James returned from injury Saturday, fellow senior wing Tyreke Key was sidelined with a right ankle injury. Key was inactive for the Vols’ win over South Carolina.
• As injuries have limited Tennessee’s depth this month, true freshman guard B.J. Edwards has seen meaningful minutes in recent games vs. Missouri, at Kentucky, at Texas A&M and vs. South Carolina.
• Spanning the last five games, Uros Plavsic is shooting 11 for 12 from the field (.917).
• Over the last five games, the Vols are shooting an uncharacteristic .652 from the free-throw line (58 of 89). While UT has shot 89 free throws, its opponents have shot 113 and made 82.
 
SPORTS MEDICINE STAFF WORKING OVERTIME THROUGHOUT FEBRUARY
• Tennessee has dealt with a barrage of injuries throughout February, and the team’s 3-5 record this month reflects that.
• Three key players have combined to miss nine games this month, as Josiah-Jordan James (ankle) missed four, Julian Phillips (hip) missed four and Tyreke Key (ankle) has missed one.
• When active, James, Phillips and Key combine to account for 27.1 points and 12.5 rebounds per game.
• That trio has 48 starts between them this season and all rank among the team’s top six scorers.
 
MASHACK’S CONFIDENCE SOARING
• Over Tennessee’s last three games, Vols sophomore Jahmai Mashack is averaging 11.0 points, 5.3 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 2.0 steals per game.
• His 31.0 minutes played per game during that span is second on the team, trailing only Santiago Vescovi.
• Mashack has made 4 of 7 3-point attempts (.571) over the last three games and owns a 4.0 assist/turnover ratio.
• He scored a career-high 16 points at Kentucky Feb. 18 and more recently scored 14 Saturday vs. South Carolina.
• Alabama’s Brandon Miller is a National Freshman of the Year contender and projected NBA Lottery Pick. When Miller was guarded by Mashack on Feb. 15, he was 0-for-6 from the field with four points. Against other defenders, Miller scored 11 on 4-of-5 shooting.
 
SANTI AMONG SEC’s TOP SHOOTERS
• During league play, Santiago Vescovi ranks second in the SEC in both 3-point percentage (.369) and 3-point makes per game (2.53).
• While battling illness last week at No. 25 Texas A&M, he recorded his first career double-double and flirted with a triple-double, totaling 14 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists while also grabbing three steals.

BOX SCORE  |  HIGHLIGHTS  |  JAMES POSTGAME ON SEC NETWORK  |  BARNES POSTGAME  |  JAMES POSTGAME  |  ZEIGLER POSTGAME  |  EDWARDS POSTGAME

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – For a second time this season, Tennessee defeated South Carolina by at least 40 points, taking down the Gamecocks in dominant fashion, 85-45 Saturday at Thompson-Boling Arena.

Tennessee’s pair of wins over South Carolina totaled an 83-point margin, as the Vols won 85-42 in Columbia on Jan. 7. Tennessee has won each of the last six meetings in Knoxville against the Gamecocks and 10 of the last 11 meetings overall in the series.

The Vol’s four total turnovers Saturday stood as UT’s fewest in a game during the eight-year tenure of head coach Rick Barnes.

Five Vols scored in double figures Saturday as Tennessee assisted on 29 of its 36 made field goals. UT shot 58 percent from the floor and just over 43 percent (10-of-23) from 3-point range.

Coming off a four-game injury absence, Josiah-Jordan James tied for a game-high scoring effort, leading the Vols with 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting, including a 4-of-7 mark from 3-point range, two rebounds and an assist. Jahmai Mashack logged 14 points, connecting on 5-of-7 field-goal attempts and made both of his 3-point attempts to go along with six rebounds, two assists and a pair of steals. 

Zakai Zeigler posted a double-double, scoring 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field—including his 3-of-4 clip from beyond the arc—and dishing out a career-high 11 assists.

Olivier Nkamhoua recorded an efficient performance, totaling 10 points on 5-of-10 shooting, eight rebounds and five assists in the win. Uros Plavsic finished with 10 points on a perfect 5-of-5 shooting effort. Santiago Vescovi logged seven points, four assists and four rebounds.

South Carolina had just one player score more than seven points, with Hayden Brown registering 18 points on a 7-of-14 shooting effort.

James led Tennessee in scoring in the first half, coming off the bench for 10 points in as many minutes. Zeigler and Plavsic weren’t far behind, scoring eight apiece in the opening half. Tennessee matched South Carolina’s first-half point total of 26 with 26 points of its own just in the paint, taking a 12-point lead into the break, 38-26.

Early in the second half, Jonas Aidoo hammered down an alley-oop dunk off a Zeigler assist to put Tennessee up by 19 points, before a Nkamhoua jumper the following possession gave the Vols their first lead of 20 points, leading by 21 at 51-30.

With just under nine minutes remaining in the game Saturday, Tennessee had four double-figure scorers—Zeigler, Nkamhoua, Plavsic and James—compared to one for South Carolina, Brown.

Through the first 13 minutes of the second half, South Carolina amassed just four made field goals with five turnovers. At that point, just three Gamecocks had registers points in the second half, combining for eight points on 4-of-16 shooting from the field.

Tennessee used a 22-5 second-half run to take a 73-39 lead and ended the game on a 34-11 run over the final 12:35 of play. UT made six of its final seven field-goal attempts on the night.

UP NEXT: Tennessee is back inside Thompson-Boling Arena for the final time this season for Senior Night, taking on Arkansas on Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on ESPN2.

SCORIN’ AND DISHIN’: Saturday’s 13-point, 11-assist double-double is Zakai Zeigler’s fifth points/assists double-double this season, but ties him for the program’s career record, which was set by Rodney Woods from 1972-75.

STIFLING DEFENSE: For the 12th time this season, Tennessee held its opponent to 50 or fewer points—a mark that leads the nation.

THE WINNING MARGIN: Saturday’s 40-point victory also marked Tennessee’s 12th win this season by 20 or more points—a program record for 20+ point wins in a single season.

MAKING IT RAIN: Tennessee shot .567 from the field in the first half and .594 in the second half, its best shooting percentages in any half since shooting .625 in the second half against Texas on Jan. 28.

The Vols have now shot 50 percent or better from the field during a half 18 times this season.

MONEY: Tennessee hit 10 3-pointers Saturday night, marking its 10th game with at least 10 made threes this season. With the Vols making 10+ threes 14 times last year, it becomes the first time since the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons in which Tennessee has made 10+ 3-point shots in a game at least 10 times in consecutive seasons.

-UT Athletics