University of Tennessee Athletics
TENNESSEE VS. SOUTHERN INDIANA -- GAME PREVIEW
November 01, 2005 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 1, 2005
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Tennessee Trends
- The Vols will have just nine scholarship players available when they take the court against Southern Indiana Nov. 3. UT's roster sports 11 scholarship players but Tony Passley will sit out the season under NCAA transfer guidelines and Andre Patterson has been suspended to start the campaign.
- Not only is UT's roster short on scholarship players but it is also short on size. Tennessee's roster lists just four players -- Andre Patterson (6-7), Ryan Childress (6-9), Damion Harris (6-10) and Major Wingate (6-10) -- taller than 6-foot-5.
- Tennessee returns 64.6 percent of its scoring, 66.2 percent of its rebounding, 80.4 percent of its assists and 69.5 percent of its minutes played from the 2004-05 season.
- Six walk-ons are listed on the Vols' roster. Eddie DeBro is the only returning walk-on while Ben Bosse, Jonah Cox, Justin Jackson, Jordan Smith and Tanner Wild are each in their rookie season with the squad.
- The Vols play 18 of their 27 regular-season games within the state of Tennessee. UT will play games in Knoxville (14), Nashville (2) and Memphis (1). The SEC Tournament will also be in Nashville.
- Tennessee has an all-time record of 1,345-884-2 entering its 97th season of basketball.
- UT's 598 regular season Southeastern Conference victories rank third all-time in the SEC. Only Kentucky and Alabama have won more league games.
- Tennessee is 200-84 in its 19th season in Thompson-Boling Arena. The Volunteers have posted winning home records in 16 of their 18 previous seasons in the facility.
- The Vols return their 2004-05 statistical leader in 11 of 12 categories. Andre Patterson was UT's leading rebounder with 6.2 boards per game and C.J. Watson led the Vols with 155 assists last season. The only category the Vols don't return their leader from last year is scoring. Chris Lofton is Tennessee's top returning scorer after averaging 13.2 points as a freshman.
- UT returns a total of eight letterwinners, including three starters from last season's squad.
- The basketball court at Thompson-Boling Arena has been named "The Summitt" in honor of Pat Summitt, who recorded her 882nd career win in 2005.
Tennessee In Exhibition Games
The Vols are 47-16 all-time in exhibition games, including a 38-8 mark in home exhibition games ... Tennessee has won 24 of its last 26 home exhibition games dating back to the 1992 season ... Last year the Vols swept both of their exhibition games with a 117-89 win over Tusculum and a 95-59 win over Carson-Newman ... UT hosts Carson-Newman Nov. 11 in its final exhibition game of the 2005-06 season.
Experimental Rules To Be Used Against Southern Indiana
Tennessee will be using three experimental rules setup by the NCAA during its exhibition game against Southern Indiana. UT will not use the experimental rules in their second exhibition game against Carson-Newman.
- Moving the 3-point line 1 foot behind the current 3-point line to create a new experimental distance of 20 feet, 9 inches.
- Widening the free throw lane by 1 foot on each side. The experimental lane will serve both as the three-second lane and the free throw lane.
- Placing a restricted area arc which is to be three feet from the center of the basket ring.
Looking At Southern Indiana
Southern Indiana is coming off a season in which it posted a 27-5 overall record and won the Great Lakes Valley Conference with an 18-2 regular season mark ... The Screaming Eagles also won the GLVC tournament to advance to the NCAA Division II Tournament for the 12th time in 13 seasons ... Southern Indiana is ranked 10th in the Division II Bulletin Preseason Top 25 poll ... In a vote of GLVC coaches, USI was picked to win the league's West Division this year ... USI returns three players who earned honorable mention All-GLVC honors last season ... Chris Thompson, David Bryant and Geoff Van Winkle each earned all-conference honors in 2005 ... A preseason All-America, Thompson is the squad's top returning scorer with 11.3 ppg and 9.2 rpg ... Thompson, a 6-foot-6 senior forward, registered 12 double-doubles last season ... Southern Indiana's roster features four Division I transfers ... Keith Christmas, a 6-6 junior played at Middle Tennessee before transferring, Mike Kalicak, a 6-7 sophomore started his career at Missouri but did not play for the Tigers; Nick Brooks, a 6-6 junior began his collegiate career at Butler; and Mike Harrington, a 6-7 freshman that transferred from Cal State Fullerton ... The Tennessee game is the first of two exhibition games for the Screaming Eagles ... USI travels to Louisville Nov. 20 to complete its exhibition schedule ... Since 1990, USI is 14-6 in exhibition games ... Last year the Screaming Eagles fell to Evansville (75-88) and Cincinnati (62-82) in exhibition contests ... This isn't the first time USI has met a Bruce Pearl coached team in an exhibition game ... In 2003-04 the Screaming Eagles dropped an exhibition contest to UW-Milwaukee 76-99 ... USI is coached by Rick Herdes who is 102-27 in his fifth season at the helm of the Screaming Eagles program ... Prior to being elevated to the head coaching position, Herdes spent nine years as an assistant and associate head coach at USI under Bruce Pearl.
Series History
This is the first meeting between Tennessee and Southern Indiana ... The Vols are 1-2 all-time against current members of the GLVC ... All of UT's meetings against current GLVC members were against Kentucky Wesleyan and came between 1929 and 1955.
UT-USI Connections
Bruce Pearl spent nine years as head coach of the Screaming Eagles, registering a 231-46 record ... UT director of basketball operations Ken Johnson spent two years (2000 and 2001) as an assistant coach at USI ... USI head coach Rick Herdes was an assistant on Pearl's staff for nine years at USI before taking over the head coaching reins in 2002 ... Southern Indiana assistant coach Marc Hostetter was a point guard on Pearl's 1995 national championship squad and later served two seasons as an assistant coach on Pearl's staff at USI.
Did You Know?
Bruce Pearl isn't the only Tennessee connection to USI's 1995 NCAA Division II Championship squad ... Cortez Barnes, who played at UT during the 1993-94 season, was named the CBS/Chevrolet Player of the Game after scoring 14 points and gathering 10 rebounds for the Screaming Eagles in the championship game against UC Riverside.
Watson And Lofton Receive Preseason Accolades From SEC Coaches
Tennessee's backcourt combination of C.J. Watson and Chris Lofton were named to the second annual men's basketball preseason All-SEC first and second teams as announced by the Southeastern Conference office October 21 ... Watson, a senior point guard, earned first team honors while Lofton, a sophomore shooting guard, was named to the season team ... The preseason All-SEC first and second teams consist of a minimum of eight players on each squad, voted on by the SEC men's basketball coaches.
Watson Nearing 1,000 Points
Point guard C.J. Watson enters his senior season needing just 34 points to reach the 1,000 career point mark ... In 89 career games the Las Vegas native has scored 966 points (10.9 ppg) ... He would become the 38th UT player to reach the 1,000-point milestone ... He would become just the third Tennessee player to have 1,000 points and 400 career assists (joining Allan Houston and Tony Harris) ... With one more assist and 34 points, Watson would have more assists than any other member of Tennessee's 1,000-point club (Houston currently leads all 1,000-point scorers with 360 career assists).
Watson Leads SEC In Assists For Second Time In Three Years
C.J. Watson averaged 5.0 assists in 16 Southeastern Conference games in 2004-05 ... It marked the second time in three years the point guard has been the conference's assists leader in league games ... He also led the league with 5.44 assists against SEC foes as a freshman in 2002-03 ... His 460 career assists are tied with Allan Houston (1989-93) for fifth all-time at Tennessee ... Watson owns three of the top 13 single-season assist marks in Tennessee history.
Lofton Is A Triples Threat
Chris Lofton, a 6-foot-2 sophomore, took the SEC by storm as a freshman by leading the league in 3-point percentage (.465) and 3-pointers made per game (3.00 3pg) ... He ranked fourth nationally in 3-point accuracy on his way to earning a spot on the SEC All-Freshman team ... His 93 3-pointers were the most ever by an SEC freshman and rank 10th on Tennessee's career lists.
Patterson Leads Another Team In Shooting
When Andre Patterson led the Vols with his 56.8 percent field goal shooting in 2004-05, it marked the second school he had led in field goal percentage ... As a sophomore at UCLA in 2002-03 he led the Bruins and Pac-10 Conference with a 60.8 field goal percentage ... As a junior at Tennessee last season, Patterson averaged 7.4 points per game while leading the Vols and ranking 10th in the SEC with 6.2 rebounds per game.
Bradshaw Playing Big
With only four players taller than 6-foot-5 on the roster, junior guard Dane Bradshaw will be called upon to play big, quite literally ... The 6-4 backup point guard will, at times, fill in at the post for the Vols as they go with a smaller lineup ... Playing in the paint isn't anything new for the Memphis native ... In 2005 he drew difficult defensive assignments by guarding 6-foot-8, 252-pound Brandon Bass against LSU (2/5/05) and 6-foot-10 Jermareo Davidson of Alabama (2/9/05).
Asumnu Hopes To Build On Strong Finish To 2005
Senior guard/forward Stanley Asumnu finished the 2004-05 campaign strong and is looking to build on that momentum ... The ultra-athletic Houston native scored 24 points in 27 minutes of playing time over Tennessee's final four games of the 2005 season ... Against Georgia (3/5/05), the 6-foot-5 Asumnu scored a career-high 14 points on 6-of-6 shooting from the field in just 10 minutes of action ... In 83 career games Asumnu has averaged 3.6 points in 12.6 minutes per game.
Tennessee In Season-Openers
Tennessee has won its season-opener in each of the last six seasons, including a 69-57 win over Stanford at the Maui Invitational last season ... In their last 20 season-openers, the Vols have recorded an 18-2 record ... The only teams to post a win over the Vols in that time were No. 18 Arizona (73-72 on Nov. 13, 1998) and East Tennessee State (87-79 on Nov. 25, 1991).
Tennessee In Home-Openers
The Vols are 37-2 in their last 39 home openers dating back to the 1966-67 campaign ... Tennessee has won 13 home-openers in a row ... In 2004-05 the Vols defeated Wofford 73-67 in their home-opener ... UT's last loss in a home opener was on Nov. 25, 1991 when East Tennessee State posted a 87-79 win in Thompson-Boling Arena ... ETSU went on to post a 24-7 record that included a win over Arizona in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
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 200-84 (.704) in its 19th season in Thompson-Boling Arena.
- Since the 1998 season, the Vols are 101-25 (.802) in Thompson-Boling Arena.
- The Vols are 47-16 against SEC teams at home over the last six seasons.
- UT has won 60 of its last 67 home games against non-conference opponents.
