Pearl Goes For 100th Victory as Vols Coach

• Tuesday's game has a chance to be Bruce Pearl's 100th win as Tennessee's head coach. In his fifth yearon Rocky Top, Pearl has coached in 136 games thus far at UT. Interestingly, last season's home win over UNC Asheville marked Pearl's 400th career victory as a college head coach.
• Wayne Chism needs just five points to pass former Academic All-America performer Lang Wiseman (1,156 points from 1990-93) and move into 35th place on UT's career scoring chart.
• Tennessee seniors Wayne Chism and Tyler Smith each logged double-doubles in the Vols' season-opening win over Austin Peay Friday. It was the second time the frontcourt duo posted double-doubles in the same game. The other game was last season's home game against Alabama (March 8).
• Ten Vols played at least 10 minutes Friday, and UT's bench outscored the Govs' bench 38-10.
• This is the fifth time--and the second under head coach Bruce Pearl--that the Vols have debuted in the top 10 in the preseason AP poll.
• The Vols return a total of nine letterwinners, including all five starters, from last year's squad that posted a 21-13 overall record, won the SEC Eastern Division and advanced to the NCAA Tournament.
• The Big Orange return 95.4 percent of their scoring and 94.8 percent of their rebounding from a season ago.
• UT's newcomers include two true freshmen (Hall and McBee), one junior-college transfer (Goins) and a Division I transfer who will be eligible to compete after the fall semester (Bone).
• Tennessee was picked by the media to finish second in the SEC Eastern Division. Kentucky was picked to win the East, while Mississippi State is the preseason pick to win the West.
• Tennessee has ranked fourth nationally in average home attendance for each of the past three seasons. The Volunteers averaged 20,483 fans at home last year; that was the second-highest average in school history.

Tennessee Trends

• Tennessee has an all-time record of 1,443-921-2 in 101 seasons of varsity basketball.
• Tennessee's 46 regular-season SEC wins over the past four seasons are the most among all league teams (the next-closest team, Florida, has 40).
• In all eight of his seasons as a Division I head coach, Bruce Pearl's teams have won at least 10 games in conference play.
• Tennessee's 78.4 points per game rank led the SEC last year and ranked 16th nationally. Bruce Pearl's teams have led their respective league in scoring in 16 of Pearl's 17 full seasons as a head coach.
• Tennessee was the top offensive rebounding team in the SEC last season, averaging 14.3 per game. And this preseason, Pearl labeled true freshman forward Kenny Hall as the team's best offensive rebounder.
• The Vols are 29-2 in non-conference home games under Bruce Pearl.
• Under Bruce Pearl, UT is 92-9 when leading or tied with five minutes left in the game.
• UT is 63-6 when scoring 80 or more points under the direction of Bruce Pearl.v
• Bruce Pearl is 18-10 against ranked teams at UT.
• Tennessee is 56-7 at Thompson-Boling Arena since the start of the 2005-06 season.
• Tennessee is 256-91 in 23 seasons in Thompson- Boling Arena. The Vols have posted winning home records in 18 of their 21 full seasons in the facility.

The UNC Asheville Series

Tennessee leads the all-time series with UNC Asheville 6-0, dating to 1997 ... All meetings have taken place in Knoxville and the Vols have been ranked in the top 20 for four of those six games ... With the exception of a six-point win in the firstever meeting (75-69 on Nov. 19, 1997), Tennessee has won every game in the series by a double-digit margin ... On average, UT outscores the Bulldogs by 17.0 ppg (82.0 to 65.0) ... The two meetings during the Bruce Pearl era have been comfortable victories of 86-73 on Dec. 19, 2007 and last year's 87-69 triumph on Dec. 3, 2008 ... Tennessee owns a 20-4 all-time record against current members of the Big South Conference, including a 3-0 mark under Bruce Pearl.

Noting UNC Asheville

UNC Asheville (0-1) dropped its season-opener at Charlotte (also on UT's schedule this season) by an 86-70 score Friday night ... Tuesday's game is Bruce Pearl's first opportunity to log win No. 100 as the Volunteers' head coach ... Last year's victory over UNC Asheville boasted a pair of historical attributes, as the win was Pearl's 400th as a head coach and Tyler Smith became the first player in UT history to record a triple-double ... After finishing fourth in the Big South Conference last season, UNCA (15-16, 10-8 BSC) is projected to improve to second in the league this year (Radford is picked to win the conference) ... Coach Eddie Biedenbach, in his 14th season with the Bulldogs, leads a club with arguably the top backcourt in the Big South and a conference POY candidate in sophomore guard Matt Dickey (2008-09: 10.9 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 2.5 apg) ... Dickey, however, is coming off off-season ankle surgery ... 6-3 forward Chris Stephenson exploded for a career-high 22 points in UNCA's loss at Charlotte Friday ... Sophomore guard J.P. Primm (2008-09: 9.0 ppg, 2.6 rpg, 4.5 apg) will be a primary contributor in the Bulldogs' backcourt and poured in 15 points Friday ... Redshirt junior John Williams (2008-09: 12.9 ppg, 6.6 rpg) could be an All-Conference performer at the power forward spot, but he did not play in Asheville's opener due to an illness ... 6-8 junior Eric Stubbs (2008-09: 3.9 ppg, 3.4 rpg) is another key post player for the Bulldogs but he could be challenged for playing time at center by 6-10 freshman D.J. Cunningham.

Last Clash vs. UNC Asheville

It was a historic night at Thompson-Boling Arena on Dec. 3, 2008, as Tennessee defeated UNC Asheville 87-69 to improve to 6-1 on the year ... The victory gave UT's Bruce Pearl his 400th career win as a collegiate head coach, making him the sixth-fastest coach ever to reach that milestone (second among active coaches) ... And in Tennessee's 2,339th alltime varsity contest, the Vols finally had a player log a triple-double as forward Tyler Smith (12 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists) pulled off the feat for the first time in program history ... Smith had no turnovers and also logged a steal in his productive 26 minutes of action ... Three Vols scored in double figures off the bench, as guards Cameron Tatum, J.P. Prince and Josh Tabb each tallied 10 points ... The UT bench outscored the Bulldogs bench 45-18 ... Tennessee out-rebounded Asheville 53-35 ... Center Brian Williams made his second career start and his first of the season and scored seven points to go along with a game-high nine rebounds ... Bulldogs forwards Reid Augst and John Williams each scored 14 points to lead the Asheville effort.

On Nov. 17

Tennessee owns a 3-0 record on Nov. 17 ... UT's most recent game on Nov. 17 was an 88-66 season-opening home win over Chattanooga in 2000 ... And just like this week, the Vols also were ranked in the top 10 for that game (No. 9).

Pearl Looking For His 100th Win At Tennessee

Bruce Pearl is one win shy of becoming the fifth head basketball coach to log 100 wins at Tennessee ... And he has a chance to be the second-fastest to do so

Hopson Impressive Early On

Sophomore shooting guard Scotty Hopson has been UT's leading scorer in both exhibition wins as well as in the season-opening victory over Austin Peay Friday ... In those three contests, Hopson is 10-of-14 (.714) from 3-point range ... He tied his career-high with four 3-pointers against Austin Peay ... Last season, Hopson was Tennessee's leading scorer just three times.

Stout Defense In Opener

Tennessee held Austin Peay to a .345 field-goal percentage Friday (19-of-55) while posting a 29-point season-opening win ... The Vols also scored 22 points off 19 Governors turnovers and blocked seven shots.

Up Next: Paradise Jam (East Carolina)

This year's event marks the 10th anniversary of the US. Virgin Islands Paradise Jam, but Tennessee is making its first-ever appearance at the tournament ... Joining UT in the eight-team field is Boston College (Bruce Pearl's alma mater), DePaul, East Carolina, Northern Iowa, Purdue, South Dakota State and St. John's ... The Vols' opening-round opponent on Friday is East Carolina ... If UT wins Friday, it would have Saturday off before playing the winner of DePaul-Northern Iowa Sunday at 6 p.m. ET ... A Tennessee loss on Friday means the Vols would play the DePaul- Northern Iowa loser Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET.

Vols Making Their First Appearance At Paradise Jam; Smith Making His Second

Tennessee's upcoming trip to St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, marks the program's first-ever appearance at the event ... But senior guard/forward Tyler Smith knows his way around the island, as he competed in the 2006 Paradise Jam as a true freshman at Iowa ... The Hawkeyes went 1-2 in that year's tournament (a win over Toledo before losses to Alabama and Villanova), and Smith averaged 19.7 ppg ... In Iowa's lone win at the event, Smith poured in 28 points while also logging six rebounds and five assists ... His 11 field goals and 17 field-goal attempts against the Rockets still stand as his NCAA career highs ... In the semifinals vs. 10th-ranked Alabama, Smith again led the Hawkeyes in scoring with 19 points; he also added seven rebounds and four assists ... Smith tallied 12 points and three rebounds in a consolation-bracket loss to Villanova.