KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The Tennessee basketball program begins its 109th season Tuesday night when it welcomes Lenoir-Rhyne to Thompson-Boling Arena for a 7:01 p.m. ET tip.
Tuesday’s game will be televised on SEC Network and can also be streamed online through WatchESPN. Visit espn.com/watch or download the WatchESPN app to view the game on a computer or mobile device. Tom Hart (play-by-play) and Jon Sundvold (analyst) will have the call.
Fans can also listen live on their local Vol Network affiliate to catch Bob Kesling and Bert Bertelkamp describing the action.
In support of local teachers and education, fans may donate two new school supply items at the gates and receive one complimentary admission to the game. All supplies collected benefit the Knox County School Supply depot.
Tennessee, ranked 6th in the preseason AP Poll, defeated Tusculum, 87-48, in its lone exhibition before beginning the regular season. The Vols return 14 players—including all five starters—from a squad that appeared in the title game of the SEC Tournament before advancing to its first NCAA Tournament since the 2013-14 season. UT and Lenoir-Rhyne have never faced on the hardwood.
Head coach Rick Barnes is an alumnus of L-R and lettered three years during his playing days with the Bears. He is also a native of Hickory, N.C., which is the home of Lenoir-Rhyne University.
Up next, the Vols host Louisiana on Friday, Nov. 9, at 7 p.m. for the second contest of a three-game homestand to begin the season. That game will be broadcasted by SEC Network+ and can be streamed online through WatchESPN.
ABOUT LENOIR-RHYNE
• Lenoir–Rhyne is a private, co-ed liberal arts university founded in 1891 and located in Hickory, N.C.
• The Bears compete in South Atlantic Conference, which also features East Tennessee schools Carson-Newman University, Lincoln Memorial University and Tusculum College.
• Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes is a Lenoir-Rhyne alumnus. Barnes is a Hickory native who played for the Bears from 1974-77. During those same years, Ernie Grunfeld and Bernard King were starring at Tennessee.
• Barnes earned a bachelor’s degree in health and physical education from Lenoir-Rhyne in 1977 and was named the college’s Distinguished Alumnus in 1997. He was inducted into the Lenoir-Rhyne College Hall of Fame on Oct. 5, 2002, and received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Lenoir-Rhyne on May 7, 2005.
• Tennessee Director of Player Development/Video Coorindator Bryan Lentz began his career working for nine years coaching alongside his father, legendary Lenoir-Rhyne head coach John Lentz. During that stretch, the Bears won five South Atlantic Conference regular-season titles, one SAC Tournament title and made to five NCAA Division II Tournament appearances. In his final two seasons at L-R, Bryan served as the Bears’ associate head coach.
• John Lentz was the head coach at Lenoir-Rhyne for 29 years and was college roommates at L-R with Barnes.
• Honorable mention 2017-18 All-South Atlantic Conference honoree Djibril Diallo was the best player for the Bears in 2017-18 and will be a senior this year. The guard led the team with 15.1 ppg, 4.1 apg and 1.6 spg last season, while finishing second in rebounding with 4.2 rpg. Diallo was the only Bear to start all 27 games last year.
TENNESSEE RETURNS 90 PERCENT OF ITS SCORING, SIXTH-MOST AMONG
“POWER FIVE” PROGRAMS
• After returning all five starters from last year’s squad and losing only two players, the Vols have gone from one of the youngest rosters in college basketball to one of the most experienced.
• Of its 2,584 total points scored last season, Tennessee returns 2,325—or 90 percent—which ranks as the highest percentage in the SEC and the sixth-highest amongst Power Five teams.
• UT’s top five from scorers from a year ago will suit up in orange and white once again this year, including all three Vols who averaged double-digit scoring in Grant Williams (15.2 ppg), Admiral Schofield (13.9 ppg) and Lamonté Turner (10.9 ppg).
• In addition to scoring, Tennessee also returns a staggering amount of its production from last season in field goals made (91.2%), rebounding (94.8%) and blocks (96.8%).
RANK POWER-FIVE TEAM % OF SCORING RETURNING
1 Washington 95.9
T-2 Iowa 94.9
T-2 Wisconsin 94.9
4 Syracuse 93.8
5 Kansas State 93.2
6 Tennessee 90.0
7 Mississippi State 87.3
*list compiled by Pete Moore of Syracuse Athletic Communications
VOLS EARN HIGHEST-EVER PRESEASON AP RANKING
• With a roster that returns nearly every major contributor from last season, including all five starters, UT received its highest ranking ever in the Associated Press preseason poll, coming in at No. 6.
• Tennessee has been listed in the top 10 of every major preseason poll. ESPN’s Basketball Power Index (BPI) and analyst Dick Vitale tabbed the Vols as the No. 3 team in the country, while CBS and Andy Katz of the NCAA each ranked the Vols as the fourth best team in the nation.
• UT has been ranked in the preseason AP poll 14 times, with the previous high of No. 7 coming during the 2007-08 campaign. That year, the Big Orange eventually made their way to No. 1 for the first time ever and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen.
• This is the sixth time Tennessee has started the season ranked in the top 10 of the preseason AP poll (see chart below). It also marks the first time UT enters the season ranked since 2010-11, when the Vols landed at No. 23 heading into the season-opener.
SEASON AP PRESEASON RANK POSTSEASON RESULT
1975-76 9th NCAA First Round
1998-99 9th NCAA Second Round
2000-01 9th NCAA First Round
2007-08 7th NCAA Sweet Sixteen
2009-10 10th NCAA Elite Eight
2018-19 6th TBD
LEAGUE MEDIA PICKS VOLS SECOND; WILLIAMS IS PRESEASON POY PICK
• In mid-October, a panel of league media picked Tennessee to finish second in the SEC regular-season race, behind Kentucky.
• The media predicted forward Grant Williams to repeat as SEC Player of the Year (and to be a first-team All-SEC performer), while wing Admiral Schofield was tabbed as a preseason All-SEC second-teamer.
TENNESSEE ROSTER BOASTS MORE THAN 4,000 DIVISION I POINTS
• Entering the 2018-19 season, only four “Power Five” rosters have accounted for more career Division I points than Tennessee’s total of 4,094.
RANK POWER-FIVE TEAM TOTAL CAREER DI POINTS
1 Kansas State 4,650
2 Virginia Tech 4,351
3 Iowa 4,246
4 Auburn 4,182
5 Tennessee 4,094
SCHOFIELD, WILLIAMS APPROACHING 1,000-POINT MILESTONE
• Senior wing Admiral Schofield and junior forward Grant Williams enter the season less than 100 points away from eclipsing the 1,000-point mark for their careers.
• A total of 48 Vols have accomplished that feat during their time on Rocky Top, with Robert Hubbs III being the most recent addition to the 1K Club in 2016-17.
• Schofield (960 points) and Williams (933 points) could both reach the milestone within the first month of the season. The last time a UT duo achieved the feat in the same season was during the 2013-14 campaign, as eventual NBA Draft picks Jordan McRae (1,521 points) and Jarnell Stokes (1,129 points) joined the club while helping lead Tennessee to a Sweet Sixteen appearance.
• All-time, UT has had 10 duos reach 1,000 points in the same season, including Ernie Grunfeld and Bernard King in 1975-76.
• Along with this year’s All-SEC duo, junior guard Lamonté Turner also could surpass 1,000 career points this season. At 644 career points, the 2018 SEC Co-Sixth Man of the Year needs just 356 points to reach 1,000. Last year, Turner finished the season with 381 points. If all three were to eclipse the mark, it would mark the first time a Tennessee trio has done so in the same year.
VOL FANS EAGER TO PACK THOMPSON-BOLING ARENA
• So far this season, two Tennessee home games have sold out already before the end of October. Single game tickets went on sale on Oct. 9, and since then, the Vols’ home games against West Virginia (Jan. 26) and Kentucky (March 2) have sold out.
• Tickets are extremely limited for Tennessee’s Feb. 9 home game against Florida, with other games also expected to be sellouts.
• Last season, three of the Vols’ home games were sellouts: North Carolina (Dec. 17), Kentucky (Jan. 6) and Georgia (March 3).
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