#12 Tennessee (7-2) at NC State (7-2)
Saturday, December 16th, 2023 | 9:00pm CT/10:00pm ET
San Antonio, TX | Frost Bank Center | TV: ESPN2
San Antonio, TX – The 12th-ranked Tennessee men’s basketball team travels to the Lone Star State for a neutral site matchup with NC State Saturday night as part of the Hall of Fame Series in San Antonio. Tipoff from Frost Bank Center is set for 9:00pm CT.
Fans can catch Saturday’s game between the Vols (7-3) and Wolfpack (7-2) on ESPN2. Kevin Fitzgerald, (play-by-play) and Carolyn Peck (analyst) will have the call.
Fans can also listen live on their local Vol Network affiliate to hear Bob Kesling and Bert Bertelkamp describing the action.
Tennessee defeated Georgia Southern, 74-56, Tuesday night at Food City Center. Junior forward Jonas Aidoo turned in his finest performance as a collegian, shattering his career high with a game-best 29 points on 10-of-16 shooting in a wire-to-wire triumph for the UT Vols.
The Matchup
In the first 10 meetings between the border rivals, Tennessee went 0-3 at home and 4-4 in all other venues, including 4-2 in the past six such games.
The Volunteers have defeated the Wolfpack in four locations: the Bahamas (11/24/17), Raleigh (1/27/92), Greensboro (3/1/67) and Memphis (1/26/65).
NC State has won four of the past five overall meetings following a 3-3 start in the series.
The sides met every season from 1990-91 to 1993-94, but have played just thrice since then.
Coming off a 23-11 (12-8) campaign that included an NCAA Tournament berth, NC State was picked seventh in the ACC preseason poll.
Junior guard Jayden Taylor, with 14.7 ppg, leads a quartet of NC State players averaging at least 13.0 ppg.
The Vols are 115-101 all-time against current ACC schools and Rick Barnes is 76-76 versus such foes. Tennessee, under Barnes, is 3-1 in its last four games against the ACC, including 1-1 this season.
Ties Between Teams
Tennessee associate head coach Justin Gainey played at NC State from 1996-2000 under former Herb Sendek—a Rick Barnes assistant at Providence in 1988- 89—and averaged 6.9 ppg, 2.7 apg and 1.5 spg over 128 outings.
NC State graduate student forward DJ Burns Jr., began his career at Tennessee, redshirting in 2018-19 during his lone year with the Volunteers before transferring to Winthrop, where he spent three seasons, and then NC State.
Craig Hammel, NC State’s director of communications, is a graduate of Tennessee, where he worked as a sports information assistant.
Rick Barnes hails from Hickory, NC, approximately 170 miles west of NC State, and was inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in April 2023.
Two Volunteer players—Jonas Aidoo (Durham) and Freddie Dilione V (Fayetteville)—are Tar Heel State natives, as are both associate head coach Justin Gainey (High Point) and class of 2024 high school signee Bishop Boswell (Charlotte).
News and Notes
Tennessee and NC State play in two of the nine biggest college arenas in the country, both of which are larger than the NBA venue this contest will take place in.
UT has played once before in San Antonio, an 85-84 loss to top- ranked Ohio State, an eventual NCAA finalist, in the 2007 Sweet 16 at the Alamodome on 3/22/07.
Jonas Aidoo had a career-high 29 points, 11 rebounds, two blocks and two assists against Georgia Southern (12/12/23). The last four Power Six players to post that line in a game were National Player of the Year Oscar Tshiebwe of Kentucky (3/17/22), eventual top-25 pick Kris Murray of Iowa (1/13/22), First Team All- American and top-10 pick Johnny Davis of Wisconsin (1/3/22) and First Team All-American and No. 1 overall pick Cade Cunningham of Oklahoma State (2/27/21).
With 786 career victories, Rick Barnes is one away from passing Lefty Driesell for sole possession of the No. 15 spot on the all-time wins list (min. five years DI).
Racking Up Ranked Victories
Over the past four seasons (2020-24), Tennessee leads all SEC teams in AP top-25 wins with 16, an eighth figure nationally. It is also tied for with Arkansas for first among SEC schools in AP top-10 victories with seven, placing co-fifth nationally.
UT’s five AP top-five wins over that span pace the SEC and are tied for the most of any team in America.
The seven AP top-10 triumphs during that time are: #1 Alabama (2/15/23), #3 Kansas (11/25/22), #3 Auburn (2/26/22), #4 Kentucky (2/15/22), #5 Kentucky (3/12/22), #6 Arizona (12/22/21) and #10 Texas (1/28/23).
Over the last four seasons (2020-24), Tennessee has played a league-high 30 games against AP Top 25 opponents, going 16-14 (.533). The Vols are the only SEC team, regardless of number of games, with a winning record against ranked foes during that span, while only Alabama (13-13) is even .500.
Tennessee (30), Arkansas (28) and Alabama (26) are the only SEC teams to play over two-dozen ranked opponents since the start of the 2020-21 campaign.
Winning Ways
Over the last seven seasons, dating back to the start of the 2017-18 campaign, Tennessee leads all SEC programs in total victories (151) and postseason wins (15), while placing a close second in winning percentage (.716).
During that span, the Vols have captured a pair of SEC championships, winning the regular season in 2018 and the tournament in 2022. In that same seven-year stretch, the Vols are one of only three SEC teams with an overall winning percentage of at least .700, alongside Auburn (.718) and Kentucky (.700).
In regular season SEC play over the same six-year period, the Vols own a league-best .706 winning percentage and stand alongside Kentucky as the only programs to log at least 70 league victories.
Over the last three seasons only, 2021-24, UT owns a 59-22 (.728) overall record. No SEC team has a better winning percentage during that span, while only Texas A&M (59) has as many victories.
Poll Presence
Tennessee has played 177 games as a ranked team in the AP Poll under Rick Barnes, posting a stellar 131-46 (.740) record. Over 63.5 percent of the Volunteers’ games since Barnes arrived in 2015-16 have come with the team ranked in the AP Poll.
The Vols are 22-20 (.524) in top-25 matchups under Barnes, including 17-13 (.567) with both teams in the top 20, 9-7 (.562) with both in the top 15 and 6-5 (.545) with both in the top 10.
4×1,000
Tennessee, Memphis, St. Bonaventure, St. John’s (six), TCU (five) and Villanova are the only six DI teams with at least four 1,000-point scorers, while just 17 others have even three.
Santiago Vescovi (1,392), the lone Volunteer to enter 2023-24 in quadruple figures, hit that figure on 12/17/22 at Arizona in his 90th contest.
Dalton Knecht (1,139) reached the 1K mark on 11/10/23 at Wisconsin in his 69th career outing and his second as a Volunteer. He scored 959 points in 67 games over two seasons at North Colorado.
Josiah-Jordan James (1,074) reached the milestone on 11/14/23 versus Wofford in his 111th appearance.
Jordan Gainey (1,029) entered quadruple digits on 11/29/23 at North Carolina in his 71st collegiate outing and his seventh at Tennessee. He scored 929 points across 64 games in two years at USC Upstate.
That group owns a combined 4,634 points at the Division I level, an average of 1,159 each.
The Preseason Pick
Tennessee placed first in the SEC preseason poll, as voted on by a select panel of both SEC and national media members.
This is the fifth time the Volunteers have been picked to win the league since polling began in 1989-90, with each nod coming since the turn of the century in advance of the 2000-01 season. UT’s five first-place selections during that time are more than the combined total of every other program in the league except for Kentucky, as Florida (twice) and Alabama (once) are the only schools that have taken the pole position besides the Vols and Wildcats.
The Volunteers have now been picked first in two of the last four seasons, as their prior recognitions came in 2020-21, 2008-09, 2007-08, and 2000-01.
The complete SEC preseason poll can be found below:
1. Tennessee
2. Texas A&M
3. Arkansas
4. Kentucky
5. Alabama
6. Auburn
7. Mississippi State
8. Florida
9. Missouri
10. Ole Miss
11. Vanderbilt
12. Georgia
13. LSU
14. South Carolina
SEC Preseason Plaudits
Santiago Vescovi and Zakai Zeigler were both Preseason First Team All-SEC picks by the league’s head coaches, the lone such teammate duo in the conference. Josiah-Jordan James collected Preseason Second Team All-SEC plaudits, making Tennessee the lone school with three honorees.
