University of Tennessee Athletics
Tennessee vs. Xavier - Game Preview
December 07, 2004 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 7, 2004
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| Xavier Musketeers vs. Tennessee Volunteers
RADIO
TV LIVE STATS RANKINGS: THE COACHES: Xavier Musketeers
Audio Interviews with Bob Kesling | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tennessee Trends
- Brandon Crump became the 37th player in Tennessee history to score 1,000 career points when he reached the mark against UT-Chattanooga (12/5/04). Just the fourth Vol 6-foot-10 or taller with 1,000 points, he currently has 1,005 career tallys.
- UT's starters have accounted for 83.4 percent (301 of 361 points) of the Vols' scoring this season.
- Scooter McFadgon has made 28 consecutive free throws. He is shooting 94.1 percent (32-of-34) at the line this season.
- C.J. Watson needs three assists to pass Bert Bertelkamp (1976-80) for ninth all-time with 332 career assists.
- The Vols are in a stretch where they play eight of nine games at home. UT's only road game during the month of December is a visit to New Mexico on the 18th.
- Tennessee has an all-time record of 1,333-870-2 in its 96th season of basketball.
- Tennessee returns all five starters and a total of nine letterwinners for the 2005 season. It is the first time that UT has returned all five starters since 1998-99.
- Every statistical category leader from 2004 returns for the 2005 season. The Vols return 88.1 percent of their scoring and 85.5 percent of their rebounding. In fact, UT returns at least 78 percent of its 2004 production in every statistical category.
- Tennessee was one of six teams without a senior in 2003-04. Of those six teams, only Tennessee and Wake Forest received postseason invitations.
- Tennessee has made postseason appearances in six of the last seven seasons. It is the second-best stretch in school history. The Vols made nine postseason appearances in 10 seasons (1976-85), including a stretch of seven in a row (1979-85).
- Freshman Chris Lofton is the third Kentucky Mr. Basketball to sign with the Vols. The 6-foot-3 guard averaged 26.7 points per game for Mason County HS. Allan Houston (1989) and Jermaine Brown (1991) also earned Mr. Basketball honors in the state of Kentucky.
- Freshman guard JaJuan Smith was invited to join the Vols as a walk-on but was awarded a scholarship prior to the start of the season.
- Elliott DeVoe, a freshman walk-on from Annapolis, Md., is the son of former Vols head coach Don DeVoe. The elder DeVoe recorded a 204-137 mark in 11 seasons at Tennessee and a 512-389 record in 31 seasons as a head coach. Elliott was born in Knoxville while his father was coaching the Vols.
- Tennessee needs nine home wins this season to reach the 200-win milestone in Thompson-Boling Arena. The Vols are 191-79 in 17 seasons of play in Thompson-Boling Arena. UT, which has averaged 12 home wins in Buzz Peterson's three seasons in Knoxville, has 16 home games on the schedule this year.
| Team Statistical Comparisons | ||
| Tennessee | Stat Category | Xavier |
| 72.2 | Points | 69.5 |
| 76.4 | Opponent Points | 66.8 |
| -4.2 | Scoring Margin | +2.8 |
| .425 | Field Goal % | .468 |
| .483 | Opponent Field Goal % | .438 |
| .382 | Three-Point % | .338 |
| .413 | Opponent Three-Point % | .380 |
| .789 | Free Throw % | .605 |
| 34.2 | Rebounds | 34.8 |
| 35.6 | Opponent Rebounds | 32.5 |
| -1.4 | Rebounding Margin | +2.3 |
| 11.0 | Assists | 14.3 |
| 17.4 | Turnovers | 12.5 |
| 3.4 | Blocks | 2.8 |
| 8.6 | Steals | 5.5 |
| 2-3 | Record | 2-2 |
| Individual Statistical Leaders | ||
| Tennessee | Stat Category | Xavier |
| McFadgon, 16.0 | Points | Thornton, 13.8 |
| Patterson, 6.6 | Rebounds | Thornton, 10.0 |
| Watson, 5.0 | Assists | Finn, 4.5 |
| Patterson, .567 | Field Goal % | Thornton, .706 |
| Lofton, .533 | Three-Point % | Jackson, .500 |
| McFadgon, .941 | Free Throw % | Burrell, .769 |
Milestones For Crump: 1,000 Points and 500 Rebounds Reached This Season
Brandon Crump became the 37th player in Tennessee history to score 1,000 career points when he reached the milestone against UT-Chattanooga (12/5/04) ... He became just the fourth UT player 6-foot-10 or taller to reach the 1,000-point milestone ... The 6-foot-10 senior forward has scored 1,005 points in 93 career games ... He is the first Vol to reach 1,000 career points since Ron Slay accomplished the milestone in the 2002-03 season ... Crump recorded his 500th career rebound against North Carolina (11/23/04) ... He has 523 career rebounds.
Scooter Streaking
Since missing two free throws in the season-opener against Stanford, Scooter McFadgon has made his last 28 free throw attempts ... The Memphis native missed two of his first six free throws against the Cardinal but rallied to make his last two attempts to begin the streak ... It is the second-longest streak for him as he had a streaks of 32 consecutive free throws made last year ... McFadgon is shooting 94.1 percent (32-of-34) from the free throw line this season.
Looking At Xavier
Xavier is hitting the court for the first time since Nov. 30 when they visit the Vols ... The Musketeers slipped to 2-2 on the season with a 72-73 loss to Creighton in their last outing ... Brian Thornton, who began his collegiate career at Vanderbilt before transferring to Xavier following the 2002-03 season, leads the Musketeers with 13.8 points and 10.0 rebounds per game ... The 6-foot-8 junior co-captain is also leading XU with a 70.6 field goal percentage ... Justin Cage, one of two returning starters from last season, is second on the squad with 10.5 points per game ... Justin Doellman, a third team preseason All- Atlantic 10 selection, is averaging 9.8 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.8 assists ... Xavier returns seven lettermen and two starters (Cage and Doellman) from a team that posted a 26-11 mark last season and advanced to the "Elite Eight" of the NCAA Tournament before bowing to eventual runner-up Duke ... Xavier has appeared in four consecutive NCAA Tournaments and has eight straight postseason berths ... Three Musketeers were selected in the 2004 NBA Draft (Lionel Chalmers, David Young and Romain Sato) and one was taken in the 2003 draft (David West) ... Xavier is under the direction of first year head coach Sean Miller.
The Xavier Series
Tennessee leads the all-time series 8-4 ... The Vols are 5- 1 when playing the Musketeers in Knoxville ... This is the first meeting between the schools since a 77-57 Tennessee win Nov. 30, 1983 ... The series dates back to the 1936 season ... Tennessee is 24-16 all-time against current members of the Atlantic 10 Conference.
Last Game: UT-Chattanooga Upsets Vols
C.J. Watson tied a career high with 19 points but it wasn't enough as the Vols fell 68-69 to UT-Chattanooga Sunday, Dec. 5 at Thompson-Boling Arena ... The loss ended a 23-game Tennessee winning streak over the Mocs ... Chris Lofton drilled a 3-pointer with 1:37 left to give the Vols a 68-66 lead but Chris Brown responded with a trey on UTC's next possession to give the Mocs the deciding margin ... More than half (29 of 57 total shots) of Tennessee's field goal attempts were from beyond the 3-point arc ... The Vols shot 37.9 percent (11- of-29) from 3-point range ... Not only did Watson tie his career scoring mark against UTC but he also achieved new career marks for 3-pointers made (5) and attempted (12) and field goal attempts (17) ... Scooter McFadgon recorded his first career double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds despite struggling shooting from the field ... Brandon Crump, who recorded his 1,000th career point, finished the game with 10 points ... Mindaugas Katelynas led the Mocs with 17 points and nine rebounds while Steve Cherry contributed 10 points.
Patterson Repeating UCLA Feats
Andre Patterson led the UCLA in rebounding (5.5 rpg) and field goal percentage as a sophomore at 2002- 03 ... His 60.8 shooting from the field led the entire Pac-10 Conference that season ... After sitting out the 2003-04 season when he transferred to Tennessee, Patterson is back to his old tricks ... The 6-foot-7 forward leads the Vols in rebounds with 6.6 boards per game and field goal percentage by making 56.7 percent of his shots ... He has been in the starting lineup for each of UT's five games and is averaging 8.0 points per game.
No Shots? No Problem For Lofton
When Tennessee's top 3-point shooter had difficulty finding his shot against UT-Chattanooga, he found another way to help his team ... Chris Lofton, who is converting 53.3 percent (16-of-30) of his 3-pointers, recorded a career-high seven assists against the Mocs ... He scored a season-low three points on 1- of-5 shooting from the field againt UTC.
Smith Makes Most Of Time Against UTC
Freshman JaJuan Smith made the most of getting his first significant action of the young 2004-05 season against UT-Chattanooga (12/5/04) ... The Decatur, Tenn., native doubled his output on the season with six points on 2-of-2 shooting from 3-point range in 13 minutes against the Mocs ... In his three appearances before the UTC game he had scored just three points in 10 minutes of action.
Tennessee's Pilfering Point Guard
C.J. Watson's 15 steals through five games leads the Vols ... Last year it took Watson nine games to reach the 15 steal mark ... Watson finished finished his sophomore season with 45 steals ... He has averaged 1.5 steals per game over his career.
Lofton Hitting From Deep
Freshman Chris Lofton arrived on the UT campus with a reputation as an extraordinary 3-point shooter ... Five games into the season the Maysville, Ky., native has not disappointed ... He is shooting 53.3 percent (16-of-30) from behind the arc this year ... Against 11th-ranked North Carolina he drilled six of his 10 attempts from behind the arc ... Through UT's first five games he ranks third on the team with 11.6 points per game ... At Mason County High School he made 46.2 percent (353-of-764) of his 3-point attempts.
McFadgon Bounces Back At The Line
Scooter McFadgon bounced back from a tough shooting night at the free throw line against Stanford to make all of his 26 free throws in Tennessee's last four games ... The senior from Memphis went 6-of-8 (75 percent) from the stripe against Stanford which isn't a bad percentage unless you made 91.2 percent of your free throws last year ... It was just the fifth time in 30 career games at Tennessee that he missed more than one free throw in a game.
McFadgon's Dunk Ranked Sixth On ESPN's Top Plays
Scooter McFadgon's alley-oop dunk off a fast break pass from Chris Lofton in the Stanford (11/22/04) game was sixth on ESPN's Top Plays Monday night Nov. 22 ... C.J. Watson started the play with one of his five steals on the night and then fed the ball ahead to Chris Lofton ... Lofton, breaking down the left side, threw a lob pass that looked like it might be too high to a streaking McFadgon who elevated well above the rim to catch the ball and slam it through the hoop.
New Faces Contributing Early
Newcomers Andre Patterson, a 6-foot-7 junior transfer from UCLA, and Chris Lofton, a freshman guard from Maysville, Ky., have been in the starting lineup for each of Tennessee's four games this season ... Lofton leads the Vols in 3-point shooting (15-of-26 for 57.7 percent) and is third on the team with 13.8 points per game ... Patterson leads the team in rebounding with 6.8 rebounds per game ... Freshman guard Jordan Howell has given the Vols an outside shooting presence coming off the bench to average 12.5 minutes per game ... JaJuan Smith, a freshman from Decatur, Tenn., has seen action in three games.
Vols Enjoy Success On And Off The Court In Hawaii
Tennessee's win over Stanford in the first round of the EA SPORTS Maui Invitational isn't the Vols' only victory in Hawaii so far ... Pee-Wee Gash was the champion of the EA SPORTS March Madness 2005 video game tournament Saturday, Nov. 20 ... Gash defeated North Carolina's Rashad McCants in the finals ... Buzz Peterson, along with a local youth, won a free throw shooting contest that featured the tournaments head coaches Sunday, Nov. 21 ... Peterson made all 10 of his attempts in the two rounds of the competition ... The event was to raise money for local Maui schools.
Vols Trio Earn Coaches Preseason All-SEC Honors
Tennessee was one of three SEC teams to have three players selected to the inaugural SEC men's preseason All-SEC first and second teams that were selected by the league's coaches ... Senior guard Scooter McFadgon was a first team selection while senior forward Brandon Crump and junior guard C.J. Watson were second team picks.
Crump, McFadgon & Watson Named Tri-Captains
Seniors Brandon Crump and Scooter McFadgon along with junior C.J. Watson have been named team captains for the 2004-05 season ... It is the first captaincy appointment for McFadgon while Crump and Watson were also captains last season ... In 95 years of Tennessee basketball prior to this season, only four players had been two-time captains ... V.H. Klein (1913-14), Harry Anderson (1935-36), Garland O'Shields (1945-46) and Johnny Darden (1978-79) are the only other Vols to serve two terms as captain.
Crump Attending Graduate School
Senior forward Brandon Crump received a degree in sport management in May 2004 and is currently pursuing a master's degree ... A true scholar-athlete, he ranked second on the team with 14.8 points per game while leading the Vols with 6.8 rebounds per game in 2004 ... In the classroom, he was named to the 2003-04 SEC Winter Academic Honor Roll and was selected as the Edamerica Scholar-Athlete of the month in February 2004.
Scooter Looks To Build On Free Throw Shooting
Scooter McFadgon broke one of Tennessee's oldest records last year when his 91.2 percent shooting at the free throw line dispatched a school record that had stood since 1969 ... The Memphis native connected on 134 of his 147 free throw attempts to lead the SEC and rank fifth in the nation ... His free throw success rate was the second-best in SEC history ... This year he enters his senior season as the league's second-leading returning scorer with 17.6 points per game ... Only Florida's Anthony Roberson averaged more points with 17.9.
What Returns
Who could blame Buzz Peterson for being excited when he looks at what is back from last year's team ... The Vols return an unprecedented amount of their production from last season's squad ... UT returns all five starters and a total of nine letterwinners from last year's squad ... In fact, nearly 80 percent of every statistical category returns from 2003-04 ... A total of 88.1 percent of UT's scoring is back from a team that averaged 71.1 points per game ... 85.5 percent of the team's rebounding returns and 83.0 percent of the Vols' assists are also back.
Home Court Advantage
Thompson-Boling Arena has provided the Vols with a definite home court advantage since the facility opened in time for the 1987-88 season.
- Tennessee is 191-79 (.707) in its 18th season in Thompson-Boling Arena.
- Since the 1998 season, the Vols are 92-20 (.822) in Thompson-Boling Arena.
- Tennessee is 78-18 (.813) 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, 12-5 in 2003 and 14-3 in 2004.
- The Vols are 43-14 against SEC teams at home over the last six seasons.
- UT has won 55 of its last 61 home games against non-conference opponents.
Vols Sign Three In Early Period
Buzz Peterson announced that three players signed national letters of intent to play basketball at the University of Tennessee in the November signing period.
- Tyler Smith, a 6-foot-7, 230-pound forward from Pulaski, Tenn., was selected as one of the top 10 high school players in the nation when Street & Smith's named him a second team selection on the 2004 Boys High School All-America Team. As a junior at Giles County High School the first team all-state selection averaged 24 points, nine rebounds and five assists while leading the Bobcats to the state tournament. As a sophomore he earned tournament MVP honors after leading Giles County to a state championship. Rated a four-star prospect by Rivals.com, he was named the MVP of the all-star game at the adidas Superstar camp last summer in Atlanta.
- Matthew Dotson, a 6-foot-8, 210-pound forward from Centerville, Tenn., is rated a three-star prospect by Rivals.com. He was named the Class 3A Player of the Year for Hickman County High School's district last year. A big man who has a deft outside shooting touch that extends beyond the 3-point arc, he averaged 23 points and 14.5 rebounds as a junior.
- Damion Harris, a 6-foot-10, 275-pound center from Greenville, S.C., was a Class AAA All-State selection at Wade Hampton High School last season. As a senior in 2003-04 he led the Generals to the state tournament and as a junior he averaged 16 points, 14 rebounds and 6.5 blocks in leading Wade Hampton to the Class AAA Upper State finals. He first signed with the Vols last year, but is spending the 2004-05 season playing for Prince Avenue Prep in Pickens, S.C.
Preseason Honors & Predictions
| Team Predictions | |
| SEC Media | 3rd/SEC East |
| Athlon Sports | 3rd/SEC East |
| Street & Smith's | 3rd/SEC East |
| Basketball Time In TN | 3rd/SEC East |
| Lindy's Basketball | 3rd/SEC East |
| Blue Ribbon | 4th/SEC East |
| The Sporting News | 4th/SEC East |
| Basketball News | 4th/SEC East |
| Postseason Predictions | |
| Athlon Sports | NCAA Tournament |
| Basketball News | NCAA Tournament |
| Lindy's Basketball | NCAA Tournament |
| Individual Predictions | |
| Scooter McFadgon | First Team All-SEC (SEC Coaches) |
| First Team All-SEC (SEC Media) | |
| First Team All-SEC (Athlon Sports) | |
| First Team All-SEC (Basketball News) | |
| First Team All-SEC (Blue Ribbon CBY) | |
| Second Team All-SEC (The Sporting News) | |
| Second Team All-SEC (Lindy's Basketball) | |
| No. 9 "Slasher" nationally (Athlon Sports) | |
| No. 15 "SG" nationally (Lindy's Basketball) | |
| No. 16 "SG" nationally (The Sporting News) | |
| SEC's "Most Entertaining" (Lindy's Basketball) | |
| C.J. Watson | Second Team All-SEC (SEC Coaches) |
| Third Team All-SEC (Athlon Sports) | |
| SEC's "Best Playmaker" (The Sporting News) | |
| SEC's "Best Passer" (Street & Smith's) | |
| SEC's "Top Playmaker" (Lindy's Basketball) | |
| Brandon Crump | Second Team All-SEC (SEC Coaches) |
| Third Team All-SEC (Athlon Sports) | |
| Third Team All-SEC (Lindy's Basketball) | |
| Andre Patterson | No. 7 "Top Transfer" nationally (Lindy's Basketball) |
| Top Transfer (Athlon Sports) | |
| Top Transfer (Basketball News) | |
| SEC's "Best Transfer" (Street & Smith's) | |
| Chris Lofton | Top 100 Freshmen (Street & Smith's) |
