Game Preview - Texas - University of Tennessee Athletics

Texas vs. Tennessee Basketball Game Notes

Game 6: Vols Face Texas in StubHub Legends Classic Finals

Tennessee (5-0)		Ht.	Wt.	Yr.	PPG	RPG	APG
F	1 Tyler Smith	6-7	215	So.	11.4	2.8	2.2
F	4 Wayne Chism	6-9	242	So.	11.0	6.6	0.6
G	5 Chris Lofton	6-2	200	Sr.	13.0	3.7	3.2
G	2 JaJuan Smith	6-2	195	Sr.	16.8	1.6	2.6
G	15 Jordan Howell	6-3	190	Sr.	5.2	1.4	3.6
Texas (4-0)		Ht.	Wt.	Yr.	PPG	RPG	APG
F	5 Damion James	6-7	230	So.	10.0	8.3	1.0
C	32 Connor Atchley	6-10	226	Jr.	10.0	3.3	0.8
G	3 A.J. Abrams	5-11	155	Jr.	23.3	2.5	2.3
G	14 D.J. Augustin	6-0	180	So.	15.5	2.3	7.8
G	24 Justin Mason	6-2	198	So.	8.8	3.5	3.3

Vols Aim for StubHub Legends Classic Championship

Tennessee will meet 15th-ranked Texas in the championship game of the 2007 Legends Classic at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 24, at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. Versus will show the game to a national television audience.
The Vols earned a spot in the championship game with a 74-72 victory over West Virginia in the semifinals Friday night. Chris Lofton led all scorers with 19 points to go with three steals. Wayne Chism had 17 points and a team-high seven rebounds and JaJuan Smith added 15 points. UT shot just 39.6 percent from the field but forced the Mountaineers into 19 turnovers and held them to 39 percent shooting from the field and 30.4 percent from behind the 3-point line.
UT opened play in the Legends Classic with wins over Arkansas-Monticello (101-44 on Nov. 14) and Prairie View A&M (89-75 on Nov. 16) at the Knoxville Regional.
Tennessee is looking for its first tournament title since winning the 2000 Rainbow Classic in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Senior guard JaJuan Smith is leading five Vols in double figure scoring with 16.8 points per game. His 17 steals also lead the Vols. Chris Lofton is second on the squad with 13.0 points while Tyler Smith is adding 11.4 points and Wayne Chism leads the team with 6.6 rebounds to go with 11.0 points.
Through five games, Tennessee is averaging 14.0 steals off 25.4 opponent turnovers per game. Offensively, UT is averaging 90.6 points per game on 51.1 percent shooting from the field.
Texas, which is 4-0 on the season, advanced to the championship game with a 102-87 victory over New Mexico State Friday night. A.J. Abrams had a career marks with 31 points on 9-of-12 3-point shooting to lead the Longhorns. Sophomore guard D.J. Augustin added 25 points and 10 assists.
The Vols are ranked No. 7 in the latest Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today polls. UT???s No. 7 preseason ranking was its highest in school history.

Tennessee Trends

Tennessee has forced an average of 25.4 turnovers off 14.0 steals per game this year.
The Vols are averaging 21.4 assists per game.
Josh Tabb is leading the Vols with an assistturnover ratio of 6.5 (13 assists, 2 turnovers) while Jordan Howell owns a 3.6 ratio (18 assists, 5 turnovers)
UT???s 69-point (109-40) win over Middle Tennessee is the second-largest margin of victory in school history.
The Vols tied a school record with 16 3-pointers against Middle Tennessee (11/20/07). The 30 assists were one dime shy of tying a school record.
11 players are averaging at least 10 minutes of action. No one averages more than 25 minutes.
The 21,817 fans for Tennessee???s game against Temple (11/9/07) was the largest crowd for a homeopener in the nation this year.
Chris Lofton and JaJuan Smith were the highestscoring duo in the Southeastern Conference in 2006- 07. Lofton averaged 20.8 points while Smith added 15.2 points.
Tennessee is 33-2 at Thompson-Boling Arena since the start of the 2005-06 season.
UT has a 20-game homecourt winning streak. The Vols??? last home loss was a 78-80 decision to Kentucky in the final home game of the 2005-06 season.
The Vols are 19-0 in non-conference home games under Bruce Pearl.
Bruce Pearl is 9-5 against ranked teams while at Tennessee.
The Vols have made at least one 3-pointer in 324 consecutive games.
Under Bruce Pearl, UT is 45-4 when leading or tied with five minutes left in the game.
UT is 33-4 when scoring 80 or more points under the direction of Bruce Pearl.
UT is 30-14 (.682) when playing before crowds of 20,000 or larger at Thompson-Boling Arena. In 2006- 07 the Vols were 6-0 playing in front of 20,000 fans at home.
Tennessee has an all-time record of 1,396-903-2 in its 99th season of basketball.
UT???s 620 regular season SEC victories rank third all-time in the SEC. Only Kentucky and Alabama have won more league games.
Tennessee is 233-86 in its 21st season in Thompson-Boling Arena. The Vols have winning home records in 18 of their 20 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 fourth time in 2006-07.

The StubHub Legends Classic

Tennessee, along with New Mexico State, Texas and West Virginia, will advance to the championship rounds on the 2007 StubHub Legends Classic at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., Nov. 23-24 ... New Mexico State and Texas will meet at 7 p.m. and then Tennessee will play West Virginia at 9 p.m. Friday ... Versus will televise both semifinal games ... The consolation game, which will not be televised, will be at 4:30 p.m. Saturday ... The championship game will be shown on Versus and will be played at 7 p.m. Saturday ... The 11-team tournament began with regional rounds played at on-campus sites around the country ... Other teams competing in oncampus only games include Arkansas-Monticello, UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, Jarvis Christian, La Verne, LeMoyne-Owen and Prairie View A&M ... The Northeast Conference serves as the host conference of the event while the Princeton, N.J., based Gazelle Group operates the Legends Classic.

UT In The NYC Metro Area

UT is 2-2 when playing in the state of New Jersey ... The Vols defeated Rutgers 87-79 in Piscataway in the first round of the 1992 Preseason NIT before falling to Seton Hall 64-72 three days later in East Rutherford ... The Vols last trip to the Garden State resulted in an 89-107 loss to Virginia in the 2000 Jimmy V Classic in East Rutherford ... Tennessee is 8-16 all-time in the New York City metropolitan area ... Last year the Vols dropped games to Butler and North Carolina in the National Invitation Tournament at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Looking At Texas

Texas is 4-0 on the season and advanced to the championship game of the Legends Classic with a 102-87 victory over New Mexico State Friday night ... The Longhorns were led by 2007 honorable mention allconference selection A.J. Abrams??? career-high 31 points on 9-of-12 3-point shooting against the Aggies ... Sophomore guard D.J. Augustin, a second team All-Big 12 Conference selection last season, added 25 points and a game-high 10 assists ... The Longhorns return four starters and a seven of their top eight scorers from last year???s team that posted a 25-10 overall record and a 12-4 mark in the Big 12 ... Texas is faced with replacing national player of the year Kevin Durant???s 25.8 points and 11.1 rebounds per game ... Durant was the No. 2 overall pick in the 2007 NBA Draft ... Texas head coach Rick Barnes is 195-76 in his 10th year in Austin and 397-210 in 20 seasons as a head coach.

The Texas Series

This is the fourth consecutive year and the sixth overall meeting betwwen Tennessee and Texas ... The Vols lead the all-time series 3-2 ...Tennessee has won the last two meetings, including a 111-105 overtime victory in Knoxville last season ... Tennessee upset the sixth-ranked Longhorns 95-78 two years ago in Austin ... Texas has won both previous neutral site meetings while the Vols own a 2-0 record in Knoxville and a 1-0 mark when playing Texas in Austin ... Tennessee is 14-12 against current members of the Big 1 Conference.

Last Meeting With Texas

Tennessee overcame a 17-point second half deficit to beat Texas 111-105 in overtime Saturday, Dec. 23, 2006, at Thompson-Boling Arena ... The Longhorns took a 15-point (50-35) lead into the locker room and quickly extended it to 17 points on their first possession of the second half ... Then Tennessee began to rally ... Duke Crews scored six consecutive points in the first two minutes of the half helping to cut the lead to 10 ... By the 12 minute mark, Tennessee had cut the lead to three points but every time they made a run the Longhorns responded ... Chris Lofton finally gave the Vols their first lead when his 30-footer over 6-foot-9 Texas freshman phenom Kevin Durant with 18 seconds left in regulation put the Vols up 88- 87 ... After forcing a five-second call on an inbounds play, Ramar Smith was fouled and made one of two free throws ... Durant sent the game into overtime with a bucket with 1.1 seconds left ... Tennessee never trailed in the extra period, making six-of-seven field goals in outscoring the Longhorns 22-16 ... Lofton scored 27 of his career-high 35 points after halftime and turned in his first career double-double with a career-high 11 rebounds ... JaJuan Smith added 19 points ... Wayne Chism had a career-best 18 points while Crews chipped in 16 ... Ramar Smith had 16 points, nine assists and no turnovers ... Durant led the Longhorns with 26 points while D.J. Augustin added 20 ... Tennessee committed a season-low eight turnovers.

West Virginia Recap

Tennessee survived several West Virginia attacks in a 74-72 semifinal win Friday, Nov. 23, at the Legends Classic in Newark, N.J. ... The Vols took a 7-6 lead with just over 15 minutes left in the first half and maintained a lead that grew to as many as seven points before taking a 33-28 advantage at the half ... UT held the lead until the Mountaineers went on a 9- 0 run to take a 41-39 advantage with 14:48 left in the game ... A three-point play by Ramar Smith and a pair of 3s from JaJuan Smith keyed a 9-2 run that gave the Vols a 48-44 lead ... UT never trailed again but had to withstand several late pushes by WVU ... Alex Ruoff???s 3-pointer with 15 seconds left cut UT???s lead to 71-70 but JaJuan Smith sealed the win with three free throws in the final 13 seconds ... Chris Lofton led the Vols with 19 points ... JaJuan Smith added 17 points despite being saddled with foul trouble for much of the second half ... Wayne Chism led the Vols with seven rebounds while adding 15 points ... Da???Sean Butler led the Mountaineers with 16 points ... WVU???s second leading scorer with 12.5 points per game entering the contest, Jamie Smalligan was held scoreless .... UT had 10 steals off 19 West Virginia turnovers.

University of Tennessee Athletics