| VOLS TAKE ON WESTERN KENTUCKY FOR FIRST TIME
- Tennessee will return to the basketball court after a 10-day break for final exams when the Vols meet Western Kentucky Dec. 16. Tip-off is scheduled for 4 p.m. (EST) at Thompson-Boling Arena.
- Since dropping two games in New York for the NIT Season Tip-Off finals the Vols have bounced back to win their last three outings. Behind a career-high 34-point effort from Chris Lofton Tennessee upset 16th-ranked Memphis in the Vols' last outing.
- This is the first meeting between Tennessee and Western Kentucky. UT is the third SEC team the Hilltoppers have played this season. WKU split its games against Georgia and Florida earlier this year.
- After playing five of their first seven games away from home this season, the Vols are in a stretch where they do not leave the state again until mid-January. UT plays seven of eight at home, its only game away from home in that stretch is against Oklahoma State in Nashville on Dec. 18.
- Lofton leads the Vols and ranks second in the Southeastern Conference with 20.3 points per game. One of the top shooters in the nation, he is averaging 4.0 3-pointers per game and is connecting on 49.3 percent of his shots from beyond the arc. The junior from Maysville, Ky., is averaging 28.3 points on 58.6 percent (17-of-29) shooting from 3-point range over his last three games.
- UT's freshman post tandem of Duke Crews and Wayne Chism is combining to average 17.9 points and 12.0 rebounds per game. Crews is third on the team with 9.3 points and second with 5.6 rebounds. Chism leads the team with 6.4 rebounds and is fourth on the squad with 8.6 points. Neither is averaging more than 21 minutes per game.
Tennessee Trends
- Chris Lofton moved into second place on Tennessee's career 3-pointers list when his six 3-pointers against Memphis (12/6/06) moved his career total to 243, passing Tony Harris' (1997-01) 240 career treys.
- Freshmen post players Wayne Chism and Duke Crews had not been on the court at the same time until the 4:48 mark of the Vols' win over Murray State (12/1/06). The duo played 2:15 together against the Racers.
- In his last four games Dane Bradshaw is averaging 10.0 points, 4.8 assists against 1.5 turnovers and 3.3 steals.
- UT's six newcomers are combining to average 30.1 points and 20.2 rebounds.
- Tennessee is second in the SEC with 15.11 offensive rebounds per game.
- 11 different Vols have hit a 3-pointer this season.
- Tennessee changed its starting lineup for the first time this season when Jordan Howell replaced Ramar Smith at the point guard position against Louisiana-Lafayette (11/27/06). It marked Howell's first career start.
- Chris Lofton has made at least one 3-pointer in 68 of his 70 career games.
- The Vols have made at least one 3-pointer in 293 consecutive games.
- Nine Vols are averaging at least 10 minutes per game.
- The Vols have forced 201 turnovers in its first nine games this season (22.3 per game).
- UT's bench has scored 235 points in nine games (26.1 points per game) this season. In 2005-06, Tennessee's bench averaged 21.0 points per game.
- Entering the 2006-07 season, six of UT's 11 scholarship players had never played in a Division I game before.
- UT is faced with replacing more than half of its scoring (54 percent), rebounds (51.8) and minutes played (51.3%) from the 2005-06 squad.
- UT's roster lists just three scholarship players taller than 6-foot-5. Duke Crews (6-7), Wayne Chism (6-9) and Ryan Childress (6-9) are the only Vols topping the 6-5 mark.
- In 2005-06 games, Tennessee's SEC opponents had a 4-12 record in the game immediately following their contests against the Vols. The only teams to win their next game after playing UT were Arkansas, Georgia, LSU and Vanderbilt.
- Under Bruce Pearl, UT is 25-2 when leading or tied with five minutes left in the game.
- UT is 18-1 when scoring 80 or more points under the direction of Bruce Pearl.
- UT is 24-14 (.632) when playing before crowds of 20,000 or larger at Thompson-Boling Arena. In 2005-06 the Vols were 4-2 playing in front of 20,000 fans at home.
- Tennessee has an all-time record of 1,374-894-2 in 98 seasons of basketball.
- UT's 610 regular season Southeastern Conference victories rank third all-time in the SEC. Only Kentucky and Alabama have won more league games.
- Tennessee is 217-86 in its 20th season in Thompson-Boling Arena. The Volunteers have posted winning home records in 17 of their 19 seasons in the facility.
- Tennessee is the only Division I school ever to rank in the top five nationally in attendance for football, men's basketball and women's basketball in the same season. The Vols turned the trick for the third time in 2005-06.
- Seven walk-ons are listed on Tennessee's roster this season. Ben Bosse, Quinn Cannington, Rick Daniels-Mulholland, Justin Jackson, Marq Murden, Steven Pearl and Tanner Wild are each on the Volunteer squad.
Looking At Western Kentucky
Western Kentucky is 8-2 on the season after dropping a 70-75 decision to Southern Illinois Saturday night in Bowling Green, Ky. ... Tennessee will be the third Southeastern Conference team that the Hilltoppers have played this season ... WKU defeated Georgia (70-67) and fell at Florida (68-101) ... Preseason Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year Courtney Lee leads the Toppers with 19.1 points per game ... The 6-foot-5 junior is shooting 53.9 percent from the field and 47.7 percent from 3-point range ... Lee is tied for third on WKU career lists with 148 career steals ... Tyrone Brazelton, a 5-11 junior guard, averages 10.7 points ... WKU averages nearly 74 offensive possessions per game (UT averages 77) ... Ten players are averaging at least 12 minutes per game for the Hilltoppers ... Western Kentucky averages 8.2 steals off 18.1 opponent turnovers ... The Hilltoppers are shooting 49.0 percent from the field and 42.6 percent from 3-point range ... WKU was an overwhelming favorite to win the Sun Belt's Eastern Division in a preseason poll of the league's coaches ... Darrin Horn is 68-32 in his fourth season at the helm of the WKU program and as a head coach. The Western Kentucky Series
This is the first meeting between Tennessee and Western Kentucky ... The Vols are 15-3 all-time against current members of the Sun Belt Conference, including a 77-67 win at Louisiana-Lafayette Nov. 27 ... The Hilltoppers are 22-37 all-time against SEC opponents, including a 70-67 win over Georgia and a 68-101 loss to Florida earlier this season. Tennessee-Western Kentucky Connections
Tennessee assistant athletics director Bill Higdon was an assistant coach on Western Kentucky's 1971 squad that posted a 24-6 record and advanced to the NCAA Final Four ... Bryan O'Neill, who is in his third season as an intern on the WKU basketball staff, graduated from Tennessee in 2004 ... O'Neill spent four seasons as a student manager for the Vols. Last Game: Vols Upset 16th-Ranked Memphis
Chris Lofton's career-high 34 points paced the Vols as they upset 16th-ranked Memphis 76-58 Dec. 6 at Thompson-Boling Arena ... Lofton reached his career mark on 12-of-18 shooting from the field, including 6-of-11 from 3-point range ... With less than a minute left in the first half Lofton had scored 21 points while Memphis had 20 ... Tennessee led by as many as 23 points in the first half and took a 43-22 lead at the half ... Memphis went on an 11-2 run to open the second half, cutting the Vols' lead to 45-33 ... Lofton ended the run by starting an eight-point run of his own to end the Tigers threat ... Memphis native Dane Bradshaw added 11 points and nine rebounds for the Vols ... Duke Crews, who gave up his starting assignment so that Wayne Chism could start against the team from nearby his hometown, had nine points and 10 rebounds off the bench ... Chris Douglas-Roberts led the Tigers with 19 points while Joey Dorsey had 13 rebounds ... UT held Memphis to just 28.6 percent shooting, including 17.9 percent from 3-point range ... Tennessee outrebounded the much taller Tigers 50-48. Duke's Gesture Gives Chism First Career Start
Duke Crews had started every game for the Vols heading into the Dec. 6 game against 16th-ranked Memphis ... The morning of the game he approached coach Bruce Pearl about making a lineup change ... After reading a newspaper story about Wayne Chism and his former high school teammate Willie Kemp (who is now a starter for Memphis), Crews felt Chism deserved to start ... Since the freshman duo had evenly split minutes every game this season Pearl agreed to give Chism the start saying, "This says a lot about those two young men. It says a lot about the team building that's going on." Lofton's Big Game Nets National Honors
Chris Lofton's 34-point outing against 16th-ranked Memphis on Dec. 6 not only earned him SEC Player of the Week honors for the second time this season but also earned him recognition from ESPN broadcaster Dick Vitale ... In his weekly awards column on ESPN.com Vitale named Lofton his co-Player of the Week along with Wisconsin's Alando Tucker. Lofton Earns Fifth SEC Player Of The Week
Chris Lofton has been named the SEC Player of the Week two times this season, earning the honor on Nov. 20 and Dec. 11 ... It was the fourth and fifth times the junior guard has won the honor ... Alabama's Kennedy Winston holds the SEC record for winning the award six times ... Lofton's five SEC POW awards are tied for second most with Tennessee's Dyron Nix (1986-89), LSU's Chris Jackson (1989-90), Florida's Vernon Maxwell (1985-86) and Kentucky's Tayshaun Prince (1999-2002). Lineup Change Helps Limit Turnovers
Since Jordan Howell moved into the starting lineup against Louisiana-Lafayette (12/1/06) Tennessee has gotten a better handle on its turnovers ... Over UT's first six games the Vols averaged 19.5 turnovers per game ... Since Howell moved into the starting lineup UT has cut its turnovers to 14.7 per game ... Tennessee's assist-to-turnover ratio has improved from 0.8 over the first six games to 1.0 since the lineup change. - As a starter Ramar Smith had an assist-to-turnover ratio of 0.9 but since he has been coming off the bench, that number has improved to 1.0.
- Jordan Howell has 18 assists against six turnovers on the season.
Vols Bring The Pressure
Tennessee's pressure defense has made the simple act of inbounding the ball a headache for its opponents ... The Vols are forcing 7.4 turnovers per game off inbounds plays, most of which are coming off their press ... Three times their opponents have had 10 or more turnovers just from trying to inbound the ball ... Tennessee has forced and average of 22.3 turnovers per game this year. - Opponents have had to call timeout 10 times because they could not get the ball inbounds.
- They have been whistled for a five-second count 11 times on inbounds plays.
Small Lineup Not Keeping Vols Off The Boards
Much has been made about Tennessee's lack of size this year ... Who can blame them when the Vols' starting lineup lists just one player taller than 6-foot-4, and that player is only 6-7 ... That hasn't stopped the Vols from crashing the boards ... Wayne Chism leads the Vols 6.4 rebounds per game and Duke Crews is adding 5.6 boards. - UT has outrebounded seven of its nine opponents.
- The Vols own a +4.2 rebounding advantage.
- Tennessee is averaging 15.1 offensive rebounds.
Bench Contributing
Tennessee's bench has played a key role in the Vols' success early this season ... UT's bench is averaging 26.1 points per game ... Two times this season the bench has contributed at least 40 points in a game ... Wayne Chism is giving the Vols 9.3 points and 6.6 rebounds per game coming off the bench ... Last year UT got 21.0 points per game from its bench ... Part of the reason for the production off the bench is that UT has nine players who play at least 10 minutes per game and no one averages more than 28 minutes. Thompson-Boling Provides Homecourt Advantage
Thompson-Boling Arena is celebrating its 20th season in 2006-07 ... The Vols have won 71.5 percent of their games in Thompson-Boling Arena and have ranked in the top 10 nationally in attendance nine times, including in 2005-06 when UT ranked fifth nationally with 17,954 fans per game ... The arena is getting ready to undergo its first major facelift as construction has already begun on a practice facility and construction will begin on the inside of the arena immediately following the 2006-07 season. - Tennessee is 217-86 (.716) in its 20th season in Thompson-Boling Arena.
- Since the 1998 season, the Vols are 118-27 (.814) in Thompson-Boling Arena.
- The Vols are 52-20 against SEC teams at home over the last nine seasons.
- UT has won 71 of its last 78 home games against non-conference opponents.
- Tennessee is 4-0 at home this season.
Bomb Squad Returns
Tennessee returns 80.3 percent of its SEC-leading 8.80 3-point field goals per game from last season ... Leading the way is junior guard Chris Lofton who set a single-season school record with 114 triples in 2005-06 ... Junior JaJuan Smith was second on the team with 61 treys while senior Dane Bradshaw contributed 20 3-pointers and Jordan Howell had 15 ... Tennessee's 264 3-pointers in 2005-06 fell two shy of tying the school record set in 1999-2000. - UT is averaging 9.7 3-pointers per game this year.
- Lofton is leading UT with 4.0 triples per game.
- Tennessee's 15 3-pointers against second-ranked North Carolina (11/24/06) came just one short of tying the school record of 16.
Lofton A Wooden & Naismith Award Candidate
Junior guard Chris Lofton was named one of the top 50 preseason candidates for the 2006-07 Wooden Award All-American Team and the Naismith Trophy ... The Maysville, Ky., native was one of six players from the Southeastern Conference named to the Wooden Award and one of 10 for the Naismith Trophy watch list ... A finalist for the 2005-06 Wooden All-American Team, Lofton led the Vols with 17.2 points while breaking the school record for 3-pointers in a season with 114, the second-highest total in SEC history. Lofton Reaches 1,000-Point Mark
When Chris Lofton hit his first bucket against Butler (11/22/06) in the semifinals of the NIT Season Tip-Off in New York City's Madison Square Garden, he became the 39th player in Tennessee history to score 1,000 career points ... The Maysville, Ky., native entered the Butler game with 999 career points in 65 career games ... Only Allan Houston (1,415), Bernard King (1,290), Mike Edwards (962) and Ernie Grunfeld (928) scored more points in their first two seasons at Tennessee ... He currently ranks 35th on UT's career scoring lists with 1,110 career points. Lofton Hits Them Often
Chris Lofton has established himself as one of the top shooters in the nation in his first two seasons on Rocky Top ... As a sophomore in 2005-06 he set school records for 3-pointers made (9) and attempted (18) in a game and 3-pointers made (114), attempted (261) and 3-pointers per game (3.80) in a single-season ... His 43.7 3-point percentage (114-of-261) was the third-best percentage in school history and was best in the nation among players who had at least 260 attempts. - Lofton ranks second all-time with 243 career 3-pointers made and fourth with 534 triples attempted.
- Four times he has made at least five 3-pointers in a game this season.
- He leads SEC with 20.3 points per game this year.
Bradshaw Does It All
One of the most versatile players in the nation, Dane Bradshaw can and will play any position for the Vols from point guard through power forward ... Originally recruited to UT as a point guard, the 6-foot-4 Bradshaw started every game last season at power forward for the Vols ... In 2005-06 the Memphis native was second on the team in assists (116), rebounding (5.4 rpg), and third in steals (56) and blocks (11) while his assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.76 led the SEC ... Had a streak of 181 minutes (seven games) without a turnover as a junior last year. - Bradshaw has led the Vols in assists seven out of nine games this year and recorded a career-high nine dimes against Coppin State (11/19/06).
- He leads the team with 2.3 steals and ranks third with 4.6 rebounds per game.
- He had 10 points, seven assists and seven steals against second-ranked North Carolina (11/24/06).
JaJuan Smith Finally Gets Starting Role
Named the "Best Player Off The Bench" in the SEC by The Tennessean, JaJuan Smith has worked his way into the starting lineup for the Vols this season ... The Cleveland, Tenn., native saw his minutes increase from 8.0 per game as a freshman in 2005 to 24.0 as a sophomore last season ... Smith saw his production increase along with his minutes as he averaged 11.3 points against SEC opponents 2005-06 ... His 61 3-pointers ranked second and 57 assists were third on the team last season. - Against UNC Wilmington (11/14/06) in the NIT Season Tip-Off he recorded career-highs with 21 points and five steals in just 27 minutes of action.
- Led UT's scoring efforts in four of nine games this season after leading the Vols in scoring once last year.
Hard Work Pays Off For Childress
There is an old saying that goes, "The best thing about freshmen is that they become sophomores." .. That couldn't be more true for UT sophomore forward Ryan Childress ... As a true freshman last season the Cincinnati, Ohio, product averaged 1.2 points and 1.2 rebounds in 29 appearances for the Vols ... After a summer of hard work that resulted in him dropping 20 pounds and adding more than seven inches to his vertical leap ... That hard work in the offseason has paid huge dividends for the 6-foot-9 Childress as he ranks sixth on the team with 5.9 points and averages 3.6 rebounds. - Childress needed just four games this season to score more points than he did all season as a freshman. He scored 43 points through UT's first four games after having 33 points in 29 games as a freshman.
- Already this season he has set or tied career marks for points (14), rebounds (5), assists (4), blocks (2) and steals (2).
Crews Missile
One of the most heralded freshmen in the Southeastern Conference this season, Duke Crews has not disappointed ... The 6-foot-7 forward earned a starting assignment in the Vols season-opener and has won over Tennessee fans with his hustle and athleticism ... Named the SEC Newcomer of the Year by Lindy's and Athlon, the Hampton, Va., native is averaging 9.3 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. - In the South Region championship game of the NIT Season Tip-Off against UNC Wilmington (11/14/06) he narrowly missed a double-double with 13 points and eight rebounds.
Big Wayne Strong In The Paint
Freshman center Wayne Chism has played a key role for a Tennessee team that lists just two players taller than 6-foot-7 ... A 6-9 native of Boliver, Tenn., Chism became the first Vols freshman to record a double-double since Vincent Yarbrough (22 points and 11 rebounds vs. Georgia) did it during the 1998-99 season when he had 11 points and 11 rebounds against Coppin State (11/19/06) ... Chism is leading the team with 6.4 rebounds and is fourth on the squad with 8.6 points per game. - Chism has been the first Vol off the bench in eight of Tennessee's nine games. The only time he wasn't the first off the bench was against Memphis when he was in the starting lineup.
Two Sign In Early Period
On the first day of the early signing period Cameron Tatum and Brian Williams signed national letters of intent to play basketball at the University of Tennessee beginning with the 2007-08 season. - Tatum, a versatile 6-foot-5, 190-pound wing from Patterson Prep in Lenoir, N.C., can put the ball on the floor and create, hit the 3-pointer or take the ball to the rim ... Rated as a four-star prospect and the No. 13 shooting guard in the nation by Rivals.com, he averaged 21 points and 7.7 rebounds as a senior at Tucker High School in Tucker, Ga.
- A 6-9, 300-pound post player at Harmony Community Prep in Cincinnati, Williams will give the Vols much needed depth and size in the paint ... A player with exceptional hands, good feet and a soft shooting touch, he attended Christopher Columbus High School in Bronx, N.Y., before going to Harmony Prep where he was a teammate of current Vols freshman Josh Tabb.
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