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.
* With seven assists against Tennessee Tech (12/22/03), C.J. Watson recorded his 200th career assist. It took the Las Vegas native 36 games to reach the 200 career assist mark.
* Over the last three games the Vols have opened the second half by outscoring their opponents 48-10 before the first media time out. UT used a 13-5 run coming out of the locker room against Tennessee Tech (12/22/03), a 20-2 run to open the second half against Georgia State (12/20/03) and a 15-3 run against The Citadel (12/17/03).
* The Vols have outshot their opponents at the free throw line 199-95 in the first seven games. UT has made more free throws (143) than its opponents have attempted (95).
* Tennessee is 53-3 in its last 56 home games against non-conference opponents.
* UT's 108 points in its win over Texas A&M (12/2/03) are the most by the Vols in the Buzz Peterson era and the most since scoring 110 against Georgia (2/9/00).
| Team Statistical Comparisons |
| Tennessee | Stat Category | UNC-Asheville |
| 85.3 | Points | 63.8 |
| 66.9 | Opponent Points | 75.0 |
| +18.4 | Scoring Margin | -11.2 |
| .480 | Field Goal % | .392 |
| .375 | Opponent Field Goal % | .438 |
| .333 | Three-Point % | .303 |
| .299 | Opponent Three-Point % | .354 |
| .719 | Free Throw % | .677 |
| 45.3 | Rebounds | 38.5 |
| 34.7 | Opponent Rebounds | 38.9 |
| +10.6 | Rebounding Margin | -0.4 |
| 20.1 | Assists | 15.3 |
| 14.3 | Turnovers | 19.3 |
| 6.0 | Blocks | 5.5 |
| 8.0 | Steals | 7.1 |
| 6-1 | Record | 2-8 |
| Individual Statistical Leaders |
| Tennessee | Stat Category | UNC-Asheville |
| McFadgon, 17.8 | Points | McCullough, 10.9 |
| Crump, 7.7 | Rebounds | Two with 5.4 |
| Watson, 6.6 | Assists | McCullough, 4.6 |
| Crump, .639 | Field Goal % | Barber, .467 |
| McFadgon, .440 | Three-Point % | Garland, .428 |
| McFadgon, .923 | Free Throw % | Mohn, .824 |
Looking At UNC-Asheville
UNC-Asheville fell to 2-8 on the season with a 63-81 loss at Syracuse Sunday afternoon ... Junior forward Joseph Barber led the Bulldogs with 17 points and 10 rebounds against the defending national champions ... Bryan McCullough, a 6-foot-6 junior forward, leads UNCA with 10.9 points and 4.6 assists per game ... Barber is averaging 10.5 points and 5.4 rebounds ... Freshman guard K.J. Garland was named the Big South Rookie of the week on Dec. 22 after having 13 points and six rebounds in a win over Montreat Dec. 20 ... Freshman center C.J. Walker has 32 blocked shots in 10 games this season ... Starting the season off slowly hasn't been uncommon for the Bulldogs ... In seven seasons under head coach Eddie Biedenbach's direction, UNCA has a 24-60 (.286) mark in pre-conference games and a 71-41 (.634) record in conference play ... The Bulldogs won the 2003 Big South Conference Tournament championship and made its first ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament ... UNCA won the opening round game against Texas Southern in Dayton, Ohio, before falling to eventual Final Four participant Texas in the first round of last year's NCAA Tournament ... UNCA became the first Big South Conference team to win an NCAA Tournament game with the win over Texas Southern ... Biedenbach is 104-109 in his eighth year at UNC-Asheville and 133-160 in his 11th year as a head coach.
The Series
Tennessee leads the all-time series 3-0 with all three previous meetings coming at Thompson-Boling Arena ... In the last meeting between the schools, the seventh-ranked Vols defeated the Bulldogs 85-59 on Nov. 30, 2000 ... The series dates back to the 1997-98 season when Tennessee took a 76-69 win over UNC-Asheville ... UT won the first meeting by six points (75-69), the second by 16 (79-63) and the third by 26 (85-59) ... Tennessee is 9-0 all-time against current members of the Big South Conference.
Last Meeting
The bench came up big for Tennessee against UNC-Asheville on Thursday, Nov. 30, 2000 ... The Vol reserves contributed 52 points in Tennessee's 85-59 win over the Bulldogs. Ron Slay's 16 points led five Vols in double-figure scoring as Tennessee won its fifth-straight and registered its 33rd consecutive home win over a non-conference opponent ... Terrence Woods (12) and Marcus Haislip (11) also came off the bench to score in double figures ... The Bulldogs led by seven points until a pair of Woods three-pointers cut the deficit to 8-11 ... The Vols gained their first lead of the game on another Woods trey that made the game 24-23 with 7:20 left in the first half ... The Bulldogs briefly regained the lead before the Vols ended the half on a 9-4 run to make it 38-30 at the break ... After a locker room pep talk by head coach Jerry Green, the Vols opened the second half with a 23-6 run to take a 61-38 lead with 12:59 left ... The Vols never let up from there, cruising to the win ... NOTES: Six Tennessee reserves contributed 52 of the Vols' 85 points in the win ... Vincent Yarbrough recorded his first double-double of the season and the sixth of his career with 10 points and 12 rebounds ... Terrence Woods had a then career-high 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting from three-point range.
UNC-Asheville Connections
As a youth growing up in the Asheville area, UT head coach Buzz Peterson served as a ball boy at Bulldog basketball games ... Tennessee sophomore guard Pee-Wee Gash grew up in Asheville and attended Asheville High School, the same high school as Peterson ... UNCA assistant coach Thomas Nash was a student manager for the basketball team at Vanderbilt while Peterson was a an assistant coach for the Commodores ... UNCA head coach Eddie Biedenbach and UT director of basketball operations Al Daniel were assistants together on Les Robinson's coaching staff at North Carolina State for three seasons (1994-96) ... UT's Peterson and Ed Conroy also served as assistants for Robinson at NC State but left after the 1992-93 season ... Former Tennessee coach Jerry Green (1998-2001) also spent nine season (1980-88) as the head coach at UNC-Asheville.
Last Time Out
Playing without leading scorer Scooter McFadgon, the Vols cruised to a 79-61 win over Tennessee Tech Dec. 22 ... John Winchester replaced McFadgon in the starting lineup and responded with a career-high 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field ... Brandon Crump led the Vols with 20 points to go with seven rebounds ... Stanley Asumnu added 12 points while C.J. Watson added eight points and seven assists against just one turnover ... Willie Jenkins led Tech with 21 points while Cameron Boyd was the only other Golden Eagle in double figures with 17 points ... After taking a 39-34 halftime lead, the Vols used an 11-1 run early in the second half to open a decisive lead ... Tennessee shot 50.8 percent from the field while holding Tennessee Tech to just 36.8 percent shooting, including 21.7 percent (5-for-23) from three point range ... It was UT's 19th win over the Golden Eagles in 20 games.
Tennessee Makes 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.
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 8.4 points and 6.7 rebounds while starting all seven games ... Dane Bradshaw, a freshman guard, has given the Vols a huge boost off the bench with 5.3 points per game to go with 16 assists ... Major Wingate, a 6-foot-10 freshman, has averaged 15.6 minutes per game off the bench and is third on the team with seven blocks.
Hitting The Boards
Tennessee ranks second in the Southeastern Conference with 45.3 rebounds per game ... The Vols have surpassed the 50-rebound mark in two of their last four games with 50 boards at Nebraska (12/13/03) and 57 against The Citadel (12/17/03) ... UT is outrebounding its opponents by 10.6 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 is averaging 14.57 offensive rebounds per game.
Watson: One Of The SEC's Top Playmakers
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 second in the Southeastern Conference with 6.57 assists per game this season ... He has an assist-to-turnover ratio of 3.07 (46 assists to 15 turnovers in 223 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 16.4 points and 7.7 rebounds as a junior this year ... Crump has scored 20 or more points in three of his last four games after not reaching the 20-point mark in his first two seasons at Tennessee.
Sonic Boom-er
Sophomore center Boomer Herndon has raised his game a couple of notches of the last few contests ... Over the last three games the Nashville native has scored 24 points and gathered 17 rebounds in 34 minutes of action ... When taking those statistics and averaging them as if he played a full 40 minutes per game during that stretch he would be averaging 28.2 points, 20.0 rebounds (including 10.6 on the offensive end of the floor) and 7.1 blocks.
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 182-75 (.708) in its 17th season in Thompson-Boling Arena.
* Since the 1998 season, the Vols are 83-16 (.838) in Thompson-Boling Arena.
* Tennessee is 69-14 (.831) 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 53 of its last 56 home games against non-conference opponents.
