University of Tennessee Athletics
Tennessee-Mississippi State Preview
February 01, 2008 | Men's Basketball
Tennessee has one of the best home-court advantages in the nation, but the Volunteers know they'll also need to continue winning on the road if they hope to contend for an SEC title.
The seventh-ranked Vols (18-2, 5-1) try for their second straight road win against an SEC West opponent when they take on Mississippi State (14-6, 5-1) on Saturday.
Tennessee has won 27 straight games in Knoxville and is 40-2 on its home court since the start of the 2005-06 season. The Vols, however, are 14-11 in road games over that span, including 3-7 last season.
Tennessee was 2-6 in SEC road play in 2006-07, perhaps the biggest factor in it finishing three games behind SEC East champion Florida.
The Vols, though, are 4-1 on the road this season, including conference wins at South Carolina on Jan. 12 and at Alabama on Tuesday. Their lone SEC defeat was a 72-66 loss at Kentucky on Jan. 22, and their only other loss came at a neutral site, 97-78 to then-No. 15 Texas in Newark, N.J. on Nov. 24.
"It's been a long time since we've won a lot of away games," forward Tyler Smith said after Tuesday's 93-86 victory over the Crimson Tide. "We hadn't won here in 16 years.
"We just try to approach every game like it's a home game. We know it's going to be tough for us because we're on the road."
Tuesday's win was actually Tennessee's first at Alabama since 1998. The Vols have a somewhat better history at Mississippi State, where they won 88-65 in their last visit Jan. 25, 2006 after losing their previous two games there.
Tennessee has taken three of the last five meetings at Starkville, and three straight overall against the Bulldogs.
Chris Lofton had five 3-pointers and 23 points against Alabama, while JaJuan Smith added four 3s and 22 points. Lofton leads the Vols, who rank fifth in the country with 85.0 points per game, with a 15.0 average.
The Vols committed a season-high 23 turnovers against the Tide and blew most of a 10-point lead, but went 9-of-12 from beyond the arc in the second half while shooting 69 percent from the field.
"Here lately we've been trying to close our game down," Tyler Smith said. "In the second half, they were getting runs on us, and we just tried to clear it out and come out with a victory. They gave us all they had."
Tennessee is tied with the 1999-2000 and 1941-42 teams for the best start in school history through 20 games.
Mississippi State fell 78-58 at Arkansas on Wednesday, becoming the last SEC team to lose a conference game and having its nine-game winning streak snapped. The Bulldogs were unable to open 6-0 in league play for the first time since 1960-61, and coach Rick Stansbury failed in his first bid for his 200th career win.
Jarvis Varnado had four blocked shots to bring his nation-leading total to 101, but was on the bench with foul trouble for the final 13:50 of the first half while Arkansas built a big lead. The Bulldogs, second in the country in field-goal percentage defense at 36.0, held the Razorbacks to 36.1 percent but committed 22 turnovers.
"They were the hottest team in our league, one of the hottest teams in the country," Arkansas coach John Pelphrey said. "For us to be able to win tonight, we feel very fortunate."
