Yankee is slipping. Let’s hope our win streak in these threads continue.
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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – After winning the SEC regular season title outright for the first time since the 2007-08 season with its win at South Carolina Wednesday night, the fourth-ranked Tennessee men's basketball team is set to battle 15th-ranked Kentucky on Senior Day at Food City Center Saturday. Tipoff is slated for 4 p.m. ET.
NEWS AND NOTES
• For the 11th time in program history, Tennessee is the SEC regular season champion. This is the Volunteers' sixth outright title.
• Rick Barnes' last win was his 100th in SEC play and his next one will be his 200th overall at UT.
• UT is in both the first (vs. Illinois) and last (vs. Kentucky) CBS broadcast of the regular season.
• Dalton Knecht's 24.6 ppg average in SEC play is the second-highest mark of any player in league action (min. two GP), behind only Zach Edey (25.4 in Big Ten). They are on pace to be the first Power Six players at 24.0 in league play since Markus Howard (28.7) and Luka Garza (26.2) in 2019-20. The only SEC players to do that in the last 22 years (2002-24) are Devan Downey (26.2) in 2009-10 and Jodie Meeks (24.9) in 2008-09.
• Knecht and Mason Jones (2019- 20) are the only SEC players in the last 14 seasons (2010-24) with six 30-point games and/or four 35-point games in a year. Knecht is the first since Jones—and only Vol ever—to win four SEC Player of the Week honors in a year.
• Kentucky is the fourth straight ranked team—all are top-20—on UT's slate. The Vols have faced four straight AP-ranked foes just once (Jan. 20-31, 2004) and never played four top-20 teams in a row.
• In the last 20 years (2004-24), only twice has an SEC team played four straight top-25 teams in a regular season: Vanderbilt from 1/7-17/23 and South Carolina from 1/16-27/18. In the past 56 years (1968-2024), that Vanderbilt team is one of four from the SEC to play four AP top-20 teams in a row in the regular season.
• UT has beat AP top-25 teams in three straight outings for the first time. It has also won back-to-back games, both on the road versus an AP top-25 foe, for the first time.
• UT is the second team in the last 24 years (2000-24) to play Kansas, Kentucky and North Carolina—the three winningest DI programs—a total of four times in the regular season while facing each at least once, joining Florida in 2014-15. It is the only team in that time to play all three away from home in the regular season.
