Game Preview: West Virginia vs. UT

Tennessee (4-0)		Ht.	Wt.	Yr.	PPG	RPG	APG
F	1 Tyler Smith	6-7	215	So.	12.5	3.0	2.3
F	4 Wayne Chism	6-9	242	So.	9.5	6.5	0.8
G	5 Chris Lofton	6-2	200	Sr.	11.5	3.5	4.0
G	2 JaJuan Smith	6-2	195	Sr.	17.3	1.8	2.8
G	12 Ramar Smith	6-2	200	So.	12.0	2.8	2.5
West Virginia (2-0)		Ht.	Wt.	Yr.	PPG	RPG	APG
F	1 Da???Sean Butler	6-7	225	So.	11.0	2.7	0.3
F	11 Joe Alexander	6-8	230	Jr.	7.3	5.3	1.0
C	43 Jamie Smalligan	7-0	265	Sr.	10.0	4.7	0.3
G	22 Alex Ruoff	6-6	215	Jr.	12.7	3.3	4.3
G	14 Darris Nichols	6-3	210	Sr.	7.0	2.0	4.0

Vols Return to Action at StubHub Legends Classic

The Tennessee Volunteers will hit the road for the first time this season when they travel to the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., for the championship rounds of the Legends Classic. UT will play the West Virginia Mountaineers at 9 p.m. Friday, Nov. 23, in the semifinals and will then meet either New Mexico State or Texas Saturday. Versus will televise both semifinal games Friday and the championship game Saturday.
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???s 109-40 win over Middle Tennessee Tuesday in Knoxville was UT???s second-largest margin of victory in school history. JaJuan Smith led the Vols with a career-high 32 points on 7-of-11 3-point shooting. Chris Lofton added seven assists to go with 15 points on 5-of-8 3-point shooting. UT shot 64.9 percent from the field and 57.1 percent (16-of-28) from behind the 3-point line against the Blue Raiders.
The three Smiths are leading a balanced Tennessee scoring attack. JaJuan Smith owns a team-best 17.3 points per game while Tyler Smith is adding 12.5 and Ramar Smith is throwing in 12.0 points. Chris Lofton is adding 11.5 points and is averaging 4.0 assists against just 0.8 turnovers per game. Wayne Chism leads the Vols with 6.5 rebounds to go along with 9.5 points per game.
Through four games, Tennessee is averaging 15.0 steals off 27.0 opponent turnovers per game. Offensively, UT is averaging 94.8 points per game on 53.5 percent shooting from the field.
West Virginia is 2-0 on the season after opening the season with wins over Arkansas-Monticello and Prairie View A&M in the opening rounds of the Legends Classic. Bob Huggins, who is in his first season as the head coach at his alma mater, is closing in on becoming the 29th Division I coach with 600 career wins. He enters Friday???s game with a 592-211 career record.
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 27.0 turnovers off 15.0 steals per game this year.
The Vols are averaging 23.5 assists per game.
Chris Lofton and Jordan Howell own identical assist-to-turnover ratios of 5.33 (16 assists, 3 turnovers). Against Middle Tennessee (11/2/07), both players had seven assists without a turnover.
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 323 consecutive games.
Under Bruce Pearl, UT is 44-4 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 1,395-903-2 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 1-2 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 7-16 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 West Virginia

The Mountaineers are 2-0 on the season after defeating Arkansas-Monticello (81-53) and Prairie View A&M (106-41) in the opening rounds of the Legends Classic ... Five players are averaging double figure scoring this season ... Alex Ruoff, a 6-foot-6 junior guard, leads the team with 19.5 points per game ... 7- foot senior center Jamie Smalligan adds 12.5 points and 4.5 rebounds ... WVU is receiving 29 votes in the Associated Press Poll ... West Virginia was picked to finish 10th in the 16-team Big East however, the Mountaineers have finished better than their preseason predicted finish in each of the last five years ... WVU returns 71 percent of its scoring from a team that finished with 27 wins and won the National Invitation Tournament ... 10 of West Virginia???s 15 players are either freshmen or sophomores ... WVU is the only team in the Big East Conference to return four players who averaged in double digit scoring last season ... Head coach Bob Huggins is in his first season at his alma mater and is closing in on the 600 career win mark ... In his 26th season on the bench, Huggins has a 592-211 career record.

The West Virginia Series

West Virginia leads the all-time series 5-2 ... WVU holds a 1-0 advantage when the series is played at neutral sites after taking an 84-68 win in the 1989 NCAA Tournament ... The last three meetings have been decided by a total of six points ... West Virginia won the first three meetings in the series but the Vols and Mountaineers have split the last four games between the schools ??? The Mountaineers have won the last two meetings ... Tennessee is 33-40 all-time against current members of the Big East Conference.

Last Meeting With West Virginia

Tennessee couldn???t hold on to any momentum gained in building a big halftime lead as West Virginia rallied for a 65-62 win over the Vols in Morgantown, W.Va., Dec. 21, 2002 ... The Vols put together one of their best halves of the season by shooting 54.8 percent from the field and committing just six turnovers in building a 43-30 lead at the break ... The second half was a totally different story as West Virginia slowly cut into the Vol lead ... Drew Schifino, who led all scorers with 28 points in the game, tied the game 58-58 with a jumper with 4:47 left in the contest ... Later, Kevin Pittsnogle banked in a desperation 3-pointer as the shot clock expired with 2:53 to give the Mountaineers the 63-60 lead ... Tennessee missed five shots in the final 1:42 as the Mountaineers held on to the comeback win ... Brandon Crump led UT with 14 points while Ron Slay added 10 points despite being in foul trouble for most of the afternoon ... Elgrace Wilborn came off the bench to lead UT with eight rebounds.

University of Tennessee Athletics