The Tennessee basketball team will travel to Madison, Wisconsin, next season to face the Wisconsin Badgers at The Kohl Center on Friday, Nov. 10.
The Volunteers hosted the Badgers in Knoxville on Dec. 28, 2019, as the first game of a home-and-home series. But the onset of the COVID pandemic postponed the return trip to Wisconsin, initially set for November of 2020. This year’s clash concludes the two-game contract.
Tennessee trails the all-time series with Wisconsin, 3-2, dating to 1981. The Badgers have won each of the last three meetings.
The Badgers finished 20-15 (9-11 Big Ten) last season and advanced to the semifinals of the NIT. Earlier this month, veteran forward Tyler Wahl (11.3 ppg, 6.3 rpg) announced that he was returning for a fifth year of eligibility. With his return, UW looks to keep its 2022-23 starting core intact next season.
Rising junior guard Chucky Hepburn led the team in both scoring (12.2 ppg) and assists (2.9 apg) this past year. Other key returners include 2023 Big Ten All-Freshman Team selection Connor Essegian (11.7 ppg, .359 3FG%), 7-foot forward Steven Crowl (12.1 ppg, 6.9 rpg) and guard Max Klesmit (8.4 ppg, .383 3FG%).
Next season marks coach Greg Gard’s ninth year leading the Wisconsin program. Gard guided the Badgers to the 2022 Big Ten regular-season championship and earned Big Ten Coach of the Year honors in both 2020 and 2022.
Opened in 1998, Wisconsin’s Kohl Center seats 17,071. The Badgers regularly rank among the national leaders in average attendance and finished fifth nationally as recently as 2018-19—one spot behind Tennessee.
Additional confirmations on Tennessee’s 2023-24 schedule thus far include an appearance at the Maui Invitational Nov. 20-22 and a home game against another Big Ten opponent, Illinois, on Dec. 9.
BIG ORANGE TRIPS TO MADISON RARE: Tennessee teams rarely make the nearly 700-mile trip north to Madison, Wisconsin. Most recently, the men’s cross country team raced in Madison twice during the fall of 2018. Women’s tennis traveled to Madison in 2004, and men’s basketball played there in 2001. The Lady Vols basketball program visited Madison in 1996 and 1999.
-UT Athletics
