Tennessee Tidbits ? All of Tennessee?s games have been decided by at least 10 points this season. The Vols? closest game to date was an 81-70 win over Wofford in the season opener.
? C.J. Watson needs just one assist for 200 in his career. He has 199 assists in 35 career games.
? The Vols have outshot their opponents at the free throw line 175-84 in the first six games. UT has made more free throws (129) than its opponents have attempted (84).
? UT is shooting 50.6 percent (92-of-182) from the field in the second half this season.
? Ten Vols have tied or set new career scoring marks in UT?s first six games. The only players who have not tied or set new career marks are C.J. Watson, who has come within one point of tying his career mark two times this year, and Pee-Wee Gash.
? Point guards C.J. Watson (39 assists, 14 turnovers) and Dane Bradshaw (13 assists, 8 turnovers) have combined for 52 assists against just 22 turnovers in a combined 286 minutes of action this season.
? Tennessee is 52-3 in its last 55 home games against non-conference opponents.
Looking At Tennessee Tech
The Golden Eagles improved to 5-3 on the season with an 86-78 win over Appalachian State Saturday night in Cookeville ... The win ended a two-game losing streak for Tech ... Willie Jenkins, a 6-foot-6 junior transfer from UMass, leads the Golden Eagles with 18.6 points per game ... Milone Clark, a 6-foot-4 sophomore guard who tied his career-high with 23 points against Appalachian State, is second on the squad with 15.0 points ... Cameron Crisp, a 6-foot-4 senior guard who was selected to Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook?s preseason all-Ohio Valley Conference team, is third on the team with 14.0 points per game ... Leigh Gayden, who tagged the Vols for 17 points two years ago, is averaging 7.9 points per game off the bench ... Tech was picked to finish fifth in the 11-team Ohio Valley Conference in a preseason poll ... TTU is shooting 51.0 percent from the field and 40.3 percent from 3-point range ... The Golden Eagles list just two players 6-foot-8 or taller ... At 6-foot-6, Willie Jenkins is the tallest projected starter ... TTU has blocked just 18 shots in eight games this season ... The Golden Eagles have played their last two games without three of their tallest players (6-foot-9 Rusty Strange, 6-foot-7 Ben Jacobson and 6-foot-9 Isaiah Mills) due to injuries ... Freshman center Isaiah Mills suffered a broken bone in his ankle in the preseason and has not played yet this year ... Thirty-five percent (176 of 498) of Tech?s field goal attempts have come from three-point range ... Nine players are averaging at least 14 minutes of action ... Tennessee Tech is coached by Mike Sutton, a longtime assistant to current Kentucky coach Tubby Smith, who is 25-15 in his second season in Cookeville.
The Series
The Vols hold an 18-1 all-time advantage in the series, including a 17-1 mark when the series is played in Knoxville ? This is the first meeting between the two schools since a 72-63 Vol win in the 2001-02 season opener, Buzz Peterson's first game on the Tennessee bench ? UT won the first 16 games in the series until a 62-73 loss to Tennessee Tech Dec. 4, 1996 ? The first meeting between the two schools resulted in a 37-23 Volunteer win Dec. 11, 1939 ? Tennessee is 37-1 all-time against current members of the Ohio Valley Conference ? The Vols defeated OVC member Tennessee State 81-56 earlier this season ? Tennessee's lone visit to the Eblen Center in Cookeville resulted in the largest home crowd to ever watch a game at the facility ? A crowd of 10,532 watched the Vols take a 65-62 win in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament March 14, 1985.
Last Meeting
Vincent Yarbrough came two points short of his career-high for points but it was enough to lead the Vols to a 72-63 win over Tennessee Tech in UT's season-opener on Nov. 16, 2001 ... The senior Wooden Award candidate went 8-for-12 from the field in the second half as he scored 22 of his game-high 26 points in the final period ... He added 11 rebounds to his stats for his first double-double of the season and the 13th of his career ? The win was the first for Tennessee head coach Buzz Peterson, who was matched up against fellow North Carolina alumnus and Tennessee Tech coach Jeff Lebo ? Freshmen Elgrace Wilborn and Derek Stribling made their first career starts in their first career games as the Vols were limited to just eight scholarship players because of injuries ? Thaydeus Holden, a junior college transfer playing his first game as a Vol, added 16 points, while redshirt freshman Brandon Crump added a dozen points.
Tech Connections
Tennessee graduate manager Dustin Kerns served as the director of basketball operations at Tennessee Tech last season ... Knoxville native Rusty Strange is a 6-foot-9 senior center for the Golden Eagles who has started all of his six games this season ... Strange was teammates and is still good friends with current Tennessee manager Brandon McCormack at Bearden High School ... Former Vol Derek Stribling is sitting out the 2003-04 season after transferring from UT to Tennessee Tech.
Last Time Out
Bolstered by a school record 90.6 percent shooting performance at the free throw line, the Tennessee Volunteers defeated Georgia State 87-71 Saturday at Thompson-Boling Arena ... UT converted 29-of-32 free throw attempts to set a school record for best percentage with at least 30 attempts ... Brandon Crump, who led the Vols with 20 points and seven rebounds, made 10 of his 11 charity attempts ... Scooter McFadgon added 19 points for the Vols while C.J. Watson threw in 10 points ... Tennessee attempted a season-low nine 3-pointers, making four ... Georgia State?s Marcus Brown, Lamont McIntosh and Nate Williams each had 15 points for the Panthers, who fell to 4-3 on the season ... Tennessee held a 48-38 halftime lead but Stanley Asumnu, who was making his first start of the season, helped key a Vol run that pushed the lead to 60-40 with 15:33 left in the second half.
Tennessee Making A Living At Free Throw Line
Head coach Buzz Peterson has said that, ?It?s a hard goal, but our goal is to make more free throws than they shoot.? ... So far, the Vols have dominated the free throw line ... Tennessee has made 129 (129-of-175) free throws this season compared to just 84 (60-of-84) attempts for UT?s opponents ... UT has made good use of its charity tosses, converting 73.7 percent of its free throws ... Three times the Vols have made more free throws than their opponents attempted ... Against Wofford (11/21/03), UT went 24-of-32 from the line while the Terriers attempted just six free throws ... Tennessee State (11/28/03) made its two free throws while the Vols went 20-of-33 from the line ... The Citadel (12/17/03) shot just six free throws while Tennessee was 15-of-20 from the line ... Georgia State (12/2/03) made 6-of-7 free throws while UT made 29-of-32.
Vols Begin Season At Home
Seven of Tennessee?s first eight games will be played at Thompson-Boling Arena ... UT?s only road trip before January was a Dec. 13 visit to Nebraska ... The Vols play two non-conference games on the road (at Nebraska Dec. 13 and at UMass Jan. 3) ... Nine of Tennessee?s 11 non-conference games are at home.
New Guys Contributing
The Vols are receiving significant contributions from four new players in the UT lineup ... Scooter McFadgon, a junior transfer from Memphis, is leading the Vols with 17.8 points per game ... Jemere Hendrix, a sophomore transfer from Clemson, is averaging 8.3 points and 6.7 rebounds while starting all six games ... Dane Bradshaw, a freshman guard, has given the Vols a huge boost off the bench with 6.2 points per game to go with 13 assists against just eight turnovers ... Major Wingate, a 6-foot-10 freshman, has averaged 16.8 minutes per game off the bench and is second on the team with six blocks.
Hitting The Boards
Tennessee ranks second in the Southeastern Conference with 45.5 rebounds per game ... The Vols have surpassed the 50-rebound mark in two of their last three games with 50 boards at Nebraska (12/13/03) and 57 against The Citadel (12/17/03) ... UT is outrebounding its opponents by 11.2 rebounds per game ... The Vols held a 29-7 halftime rebounding advantage against The Citadel before finishing the game with 57 rebounds to the Bulldogs? 26 ... UT?s 15.2 offensive rebounds leads the SEC.
Watson Leads SEC in Assists
While several other point guards around the nation have been bogarting the headlines and highlights, Tennessee sophomore C.J. Watson has quietly established himself as one of the top playmakers in the college game ... Nicknamed ?The Quiet Storm,? he is leading the Southeastern Conference with 6.5 assists per game this season ... He has an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.79 (39 assists to 14 turnovers in 192 minutes) ... According to the Dec. 16 NCAA statistics, Watson?s 6.8 assists ranked 13th in the nation ... Three times this season he has had a game with eight or more assists ... As a true freshman last season he lead the SEC in minutes played (35.8 mpg) while leading the league with 5.44 assists per game against conference opponents ... His 160 assists as a rookie ranked seventh on UT?s single-season charts and were the second-most ever by a Tennessee freshman.
Scooter Scores Big
Scooter McFadgon had a memorable debut in a Tennessee uniform with a 31-point outing against Wofford (11/21/03) ... His 31 points were the most in a UT debut since Bernard King scored 42 against Wisconsin-Milwaukee (11/30/74) ... McFadgon, a transfer from Memphis, easily topped his previous career mark of 22 points against Temple (12/22/01) ... In an exhibition game in the Dominican Republic, McFadgon also had a big game by scoring a game-high 36 points against Libre (10/16/03).
Crump Doubles Up
Brandon Crump recorded his fifth career double-double and his second of the season with a 13 point, 11 rebound effort against Tennessee State (11/28/03) ... Crump opened the season with an 11 point, 11 rebound outing against Wofford (11/21/03) ... As a sophomore in 2002-03 the Houston native had three double-doubles ... Crump made 9-of-11 free throws on his way to a career-high 25-point outing against Nebraska (12/13/03) ... Against Texas A&M 12/3/03) he made 9-of-10 field goals in an 18-point effort ... The 6-foot-10 forward has significantly improved his averages from 7.1 points and 4.2 rebounds as a freshman to 11.0 points to 5.9 rebounds as a sophomore to 15.0 points and 8.0 rebounds as a junior this year.
Howell Back At Practice
Jordan Howell, a 6-foot-3 freshman guard from Auburn, Ala., has returned to practice with the Vols after withdrawing from school during the fall semester due to medical reasons ... Howell became eligible to practice on Dec. 12 ... No decision has been made whether he will redshirt or not this season ... He has not dressed for any of UT?s games this season.
Homecourt Advantage
Thompson-Boling Arena has provided the Vols with a definite homecourt advantage since the facility opened in time for the 1987-88 season.
? Tennessee is 181-75 (.707) in its 17th season in Thompson-Boling Arena.
? Since the 1998 season, the Vols are 82-16 (.837) in Thompson-Boling Arena.
? Tennessee is 68-14 (.829) since the 1999 season at home. UT recorded a 14-1 record in 1999, a 15-1 mark in 2000, 12-3 in 2001, 10-4 in 2002 and 12-5 in 2003.
? The Vols are 36-13 against SEC teams at home over the last four plus seasons.
? UT has won 52 of its last 55 home games against non-conference opponents.
