Well, the full bracket challenge ended up being mostly a first round challenge. Nobody called either conference champion and nobody called multiple conference finalists. Which means nobody can get any points in the Finals. That said, the second round was still the difference, as a six-way tie was broken by one brave soul calling a matchup between St Louis and Los Angeles. Final standings here, with second round points in parentheses. Nobody got any round three points. And yes, 2 through 6 is actually a five-way tie for second, and 7 through 9 is a three-way tie for almost last. If I messed anything up, let me know (picks, first round).

1. Cbrooksy: 9 (3)
2. IG-PRED8: 8 (2)
3. OddManRush: 8 (2)
4. Dirk Hoag: 8 (2)
5. JerseyPredsFan: 8 (2)
6. Buckeye_jg: 8 (3)
7. thewildfop: 6 (2)
8. Incipient: 6 (2)
9. LuvthePreds: 6 (2)
10. Davisca: 3 (1)

It's time for more way, way pre-season BlogPoll action! And Rocky Top Talk has a ballot again! I took this more seriously than the January BlogPoll ballot, but it still should be held with the weight appropriate for a preseason poll. Which is to say, none. As usual, discussion is heartily encouraged and my own comments are after the jump. I don't have things to say about every team, but I did in the last one, so you can follow that link and see what I'm thinking and what's changed.

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Corey is a writer at Canes Country, the SBN Hurricanes site, and I've been following his scoring chance analyses for Carolina all season at his Shutdown Line blog. Sadly, tracking the Canes isn't very interesting these days, so he's been monitoring the scoring chances for the Preds here in the playoffs. Game one of the second round is here, and I believe he'll keep tracking them for the rest of the series. I always find it an interesting read. The highlights (and lowlights) for the first game:

• The Legwand/Bourque/Radulov line was completely dominant.
• The AK46/Spaling/Hornqvist line was by far the Preds' worst, although Horny combined with Fisher, Erat, Weber, and Suter to do some great work on the power play.
• Kevin Klein had a howler. Corey has not been impressed with him here in the playoffs, although I thought he had a couple really nice games against Detroit.

Game two
Game three

Hooray, everybody did terribly in the first round? No? Just me. Whatever! Standings. Oh, and for reference, picks and rules.

1. IG-PRED8: 6
2. OddManRush: 6
3. Dirk Hoag: 6
4. Cbrooksy: 6
5. JerseyPredsFan: 6
6. Buckeye_jg: 5
7. thewildfop: 4
8. Incipient: 4
9. LuvthePreds: 4
10. Davisca: 2

No, the list wouldn't let me do ties. Yes, there are ties. Also, I did this late at night, so if I messed up on anyone's score, let me know.
It's quite bunched up now, but that can change with points increasing drastically in the later rounds. Of course, you could have all your later round teams knocked out. Many of us (myself included) have lost both Stanley Cup Finals participants, and only jerseypredsfan has both still alive. For the record, jerseypredsfan likes the Rangers to take down Nashville.

Marlin Lane ran for 106 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Orange to a 17-14 victory over the White in Tennessee's spring game. As usual, the Orange and White game was a lot of fun for both players and fans, but as we've seen from past spring games (Jonathan Crompton is a leader! Tyler Bray went 5 for 30!), don't give fans a lot of meaningful insight into how the team will look in the fall.

The Vols largely pitted the first team offense against the first team defense, with Marlin Lane, Darrington Sentimore, and Prentiss Waggner providing the exceptions, all playing with the second team. And it was Marlin Lane against the second team defense that gave the Orange team the edge. His speed advantage over the entire defense was obvious, and he added a couple of broken tackles on his way to averaging 11.8 yards per carry. He had 106 yards on the ground on nine carries, 32 receiving on three catches, and 93 on three kick returns, including a 43-yard return to open the game. A toss sweep taken 19 yards into the checkerboards opened up the scoring, and a 39-yard draw as the first half was winding down gave the Orange their second and final touchdown.

The next three running backs on the depth chart had similar performances, with Rajion Neal, Devrin Young, Tom Smith all averaging 4.9 yards per carry. Neal and Smith each had 49 yards on ten carries, and Young had 39 on eight. Neal and Young got their yards against the first team defense, while Smith ran against the second team. Young again showed a quickness unique on the Tennessee roster--if Tennessee can get him the ball in space, he can contribute.

With Justin Hunter missing the game with injury and Cordarrelle Patterson, Drae Bowles, Pig Howard, and Jason Croom not arriving until fall, the depth wide receivers got to show what they could do, and Cody Blanc and Jacob Carter rose to the occasion. Blanc, who like Jarnell Stokes should still be a senior in high school, made three tough catches for 32 yards against the first team defense, including one tiptoeing along the sideline to convert a 4th down. Carter, a sophomore walk-on who spent last season on the practice squad, made six catches for 42 yards against the second team defense. Carter showed tremendous hands and could contribute if he could prove himself able to get open against SEC defenses. Neither figure to be in the rotation come fall, and Blanc may well be moved to safety, but they both had excellent days in April.

On the other hand, Vincent Dallas, the only remaining wideout from the 2011 recruiting class, was overshadowed and will need to show something if he wants to work his way into the rotation. Da'Rick Rogers, of course, was not, and he burned freshman corner Justin Coleman for a 51 yard catch that set up the White team's first touchdown, but he ended a later White drive with a red zone fumble.

Tyler Bray improved on last year's spring game, going 14 of 26 for 157 yards and a touchdown to Mychal Rivera, but failed to get the White team in scoring position in the fourth quarter with a steak dinner on the line. But he reminded everyone of his ability with a perfect strike off his back foot to Blanc for a first half 4th down conversion. Quarterbacking the Orange, Justin Worley went 17 of 26 and looked solid finding running backs and tight ends, but an ugly interception to John Propst marred an otherwise fine outing.

On defense, freshman safety Brian Randolph demanded to be noticed, finishing with four tackles, one for loss, and a recovered fumble. Additionally, Willie Bohannon provided the speed rush the Orange needed to keep Bray and Company off the scoreboard late in the game. With the White at midfield, Bohannon exploded past Antonio Richardson and drew a holding penalty, then blew by Richardson again on 2nd and 20 to record the Orange's only sack.

In a familiar, but depressing, turn of events, the Vol special teams again left something to be desired. Starting kicker Michael Palardy missing his only field goal attempt, badly shanking a 32 yard effort, and one of his extra point tries was partially blocked against a defense that wasn't allowed to rush the kicker. Derrick Brodus went 1 for 2, hitting from 37 and missing from 27.

OddManRush has a nice list of all the playoff challenges for OtFers to enjoy this year, and it includes the standard round-by-round playoff pick'em. Which is lots of fun. And not insane. So I thought I'd add something completely different. And completely insane: a full bracket challenge.

Think of it as a March Madness pool. You don't know what matchups will happen in the later rounds, but you still have to pick the winners. But the NHL playoffs make it even trickier, because there's re-seeding after every round. So not only do you have to pick the participants in a round, you have to pick which participants will play which. In that sense, it's like a World Cup pool, for any of you who are soccer fans (and hopefully weren't at LP Field for the disgrace against Canada). Like I said, tricky. Like March Madness pools, there's a strong possibility of busted brackets after one round.

But also, like March Madness, the point totals go up the deeper you go into the pool, so picking say, the Western Conference Final matchup and result correctly will net you a lot more points than picking most of the round one winners.

So here's how the game works. Pick your first round winners and how long the series run. Then pick your second round winners and how long the series run. Then pick your conference champions and how long the series run. Then pick your Stanley Cup champion and how long the series runs. All at the same time in the comments to this post. Try to keep extraneous comments and trash-talking to a different thread, so that I can keep track of who picks what. And if you change your picks before Wednesday at 7:30 (EDT), do so in a reply to your original picks. I'm not dealing with anything more complicated than that.

Here's how the scoring works:

• 1 point for each round one winner picked correctly
• 2 points for each round two winner picked correctly
• 4 points for each conference champion picked correctly
• 8 points for picking the Stanley Cup champion correctly
• 1 bonus point (per series) for calling the correct number of games (only if you call the winner)
• 1 bonus point for each matchup correctly predicted beyond the first round (regardless of whether you call the winner)

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Gary Parrish, college basketball writer for CBSSports.com, has a Knucklehead Rule. It cynically, but accurately, states "once a knucklehead, almost always a knucklehead." Of course, there is room for redemption, and we do all love a good redemption story. But while the "almost" gives a glimmer of hope, the "always" faces us with the cold, hard reality that redemption stories are the exception, not the norm.

And Da'Rick Rogers, one of Tennessee's most talented players, has undoubtedly been a knucklehead. Before his freshman year, he was arrested in the Bar Knoxville incident. Since then, it's been a question of whether his talent on the field or his attitude problems off the field would prevail. Rumors swirled about fights with multiple assistant coaches, about grade concerns, about a lackadaisical performance in that fateful Kentucky game because he didn't want a cold-weather December bowl game. When the seniors accused some of the younger players of only caring about their stats, Da'Rick Rogers, who was just one good performance from the single-season receiving record, sprung immediately to everyone's mind.

And now, Rogers has some "internal" things to work out before returning to Tennessee, as Dooley told the media after today's practice. We have no details, but the situation with Janzen Jackson from last summer immediately springs to mind. He did enough to be reinstated and then promptly failed a drug test and was dismissed. Furthermore, the Scout site for Georgia State is reporting that Rogers will transfer there and be eligible immediately. When asked about it in the interview, Dooley claimed to be unaware. Whatever the truth may be, we know that Rogers' future in Knoxville is far from solid.

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Starting tonight at 6 PM, the Vol baseball team (12-8, 1-2 SEC) hosts #2 Kentucky (22-0, 3-0 SEC), who is the nation's only undefeated team and is coming off a sweep of two-time defending national champion South Carolina. They'll also have games on Saturday and Sunday. Don't ask me details, because I don't know them.

Also, you know, the Sweet Sixteen is happening. And tomorrow and Sunday the Elite Eight is happening.

If anyone wants to talk about any of those things, this is your thread. Oh, and you can watch the baseball game live online if you want to. Right here. You can also watch the basketball online, but you knew that.

Saturday bump: Vols/Cats at 4PM, Gators/Ville at 4:30, Cuse/OSU at 7:00.

Sunday bump: Vols/Cats in the series finale at 2 (in other words, now), Cats/Baylor also at 2 for the Final Four, and UNC/Kansas at 5 for the last spot in the F4.

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It was fun while it lasted. After four straight wins and a week of speculation about whether this Tennessee team could make a run to the NCAA tournament, the Vols were unable to take advantage of the short-handed Alabama Crimson Tide and were dealt another road reality check, falling 62-50 in Tuscaloosa

Alabama was playing without their two leading scorers and rebounders in JaMychal Green and Tony Mitchell, but the Tide didn't forget how to defend the perimeter, and that was enough to handily defeat the cold-shooting Tennessee Volunteers. Tennessee held Alabama to just 37% from the floor and 28% from beyond the arc, but the Vols were even worse, shooting 34% from the field and 20% from three-point range, a performance that dredged up unpleasant memories of ugly road losses in Memphis and Athens. It was the kind of game that has plagued Tennessee all season. It was a young team on the road against a very good defense, so a bad shooting and ball-handling night is not a big surprise. But it was also the kind of game the Vols had hoped they'd put behind them. And when you dig a hole as deep as Tennessee did in December, there's no margin for error in the attempt to climb back into contention.

So again, it's time to re-adjust expectations. Forgotten in all the NCAA tournament hope was that the NIT berth would be an outstanding result for a team that was picked 11th in the SEC and suffered six straight losses to Division I competition in the non-conference schedule. Also forgotten was that an NIT berth is not a sure thing. Among the last at-large teams in last year's NIT field were 20-13 (7-9 SEC) Ole Miss and 18-13 (7-11 Big Ten) Northwestern. Tennessee's improvement means the Vols probably don't need 18 wins to make the field, but they still need two wins in their last four (a stretch that includes games at LSU and vs Vanderbilt in which the Vols will almost certainly be underdogs) to even keep themselves on the NIT bubble and probably need three wins or an SEC tournament run to feel secure. That will take some doing.

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It wasn't always pretty, but the Tennessee Volunteers made the plays they needed to close out their tenth straight victory over the South Carolina Gamecocks, winning 69-57 in Knoxville to move back to .500 on the season at 12-12, 4-5 in SEC play. With star freshman Jarnell Stokes sidelined with a wrist injury and Jeronne Maymon in foul trouble, the Vols needed a stretch of hot outside shooting to gain a lead and some timely defense from Kenny Hall to hold off a late charge by the Cocks.

Without Stokes, Tennessee struggled early, with the Vols trailing South Carolina for thirteen straight minutes in the first half. The Vols' deficit never exceeded five points, thanks to Jordan McRae showing his good side, leading Tennessee with eight early points on a pair of threes and a driving baseline bucket. But McRae also showed his bad side, taking a couple bad shots and picking up a pair of early fouls, one offensive, and the Vols weren't able to get in rhythm for most of the first frame.

But then, trailing 23-21, Skylar McBee hit a three. And on the next possession, he hit another. And on the next possession, he hit another. And on the next possession, Cameron Tatum hit his own trey. To top it off, McBee got a steal with time running out on the half and got to the line off the break, adding two more to give Tennessee, who hadn't led by more than two points in the first 18 minutes, a 35-27 halftime lead.

Tennessee stayed hot to start the second half, as McBee hit his fourth consecutive three-pointer and Tennessee extended their run spanning both halves to 16-3 (or 22-7, if you prefer) to take a 43-30 lead. At one point, Tennessee had made seven straight three-point shots and had 13 assists on 14 made field goals, and it looked as though the Vols would cruise to victory.

But South Carolina would not go quietly. They got a couple extra possessions from some comical officiating and cut into the lead. And then they got a couple extra possessions by forcing Tennessee turnovers, and they cut into the lead. By the time the Gamecocks had held Tennessee to over seven minutes without a field goal and cut the lead to four points, things ceased being comical.

Josh Richardson broke the Tennessee drought, and the Vols extended the lead to eight, but Bruce Ellington led South Carolina right back, and the under four timeout saw the Gamecocks trailing just 58-55 and poised to take over.

But a clutch drive with the shot clock running down from Trae Golden yielded a three-point play and a little breathing room, and then Jeronne Maymon added his own three-point play after coming out on the right side of the random block/charge generator for the first time of the night. On the other side, Kenny Hall got steals, blocked shots, and generally kept South Carolina from hanging around during a 7-0 run that extended the lead back to double digits and salted away the game for a young Tennessee team that hasn't been able to avoid extended periods of sloppy play but has figured out lately how to win an ugly game.

McBee, in just his second start, led the Vols with 18 points, with Golden adding 14 and Maymon 12. Hall grabbed 10 boards and swatted three shots (officially) for Tennessee, with Maymon and Tatum both adding six rebounds.

After consecutive home games with the two teams at the bottom of the SEC standings, Tennessee's schedule toughens back up Saturday, as they will visit #8 Florida in search of their first road victory of the season.

Exhale. The Vols looked dominant at times and looked ready to fall apart at times, but a huge day from Jarnell Stokes helped Tennessee hold off a late rally from red hot Jeremy Lamb and the Connecticut Huskies 60-57 at Thompson-Boling Arena.

In front of a rabid crowd that drew awe from the CBS announcers and the UConn play by play announcer, on We Back Pat day in Knoxville, and against one of the Lady Vols' biggest rivals and the defending men's national champions, Stokes simply took over, with 16 points, 13 rebounds, and 2 blocks. He out-dueled the projected #1 pick in the 2012 NBA draft in UConn's Andre Drummond, who had just 6 points and 8 rebounds.

The first half was a bruising battle, with both teams led by two big bodies in their starting frontcourt, but the referees let them play, and the two teams combined for just seven first half free throws. Trae Golden and Jeronne Maymon combined to go just 0 of 7 in the first half, but Tennessee was led by eight points from Cameron Tatum and six from Stokes to stay within two, as an impressive driving layup from Jeremy Lamb in the final seconds put UConn up 27-25 at the half.

But in the second half, Tennessee came out firing. Tatum made another three, Stokes hit a layup, and Jeronne Maymon made his first two buckets of the game, and a 9-0 Volunteer run was good for a 34-27 lead with 16:27 to play.

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SBNation is already having their first BlogPoll of 2012, and because I think this is kinda fun (and because I wanted a reason to stop thinking about 2011), Chris tasked me with preparing our ballot. If he'd done it, the SEC teams would've just been 1-14.

I took it somewhat seriously and somewhat lightheartedly. It has almost all the elements of your standard preseason poll, if I do say so myself. Notes on what exactly that entails after the jump. As usual, berating me for being an idiot is a-okay. That's what this stuff is for.

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Trae Golden, with 20 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists, brought Tennessee to the brink of victory in Starkville against Mississippi State. But with the ball in hand and a chance to win, he made one of his few mistakes of the night, fumbling away a chance to win and allowing the Bulldogs to cap a 62-58 victory with an emphatic transition slam.

Yet again, it was a night of lessons for the young Vols squad, who could've folded and gotten run out of the building a number of times but kept playing tight defense and chipping their way back. However, when Tennessee had chances to win, they were simply unable to make the plays.

After trailing by 12 at multiple points during the second half, Tennessee cut the deficit to four with just over five minutes left before a string of poor plays by the Vols and great ones by Mississippi State. Tennessee came away with no points on three consecutive transition attempts, getting blocked twice and throwing a ball out of bounds. Meanwhile, Mississippi State hit a pair of clutch shots, including a three by cold-shooting Dee Bost--left open after a poor switch by Kenny Hall--to put the Bulldogs up six with 3:10 to go.

But, as they had done so many times already, Tennessee climbed back into the game when it looked like Mississippi State had finally sealed it. Some tight defense kept Mississippi State from extending the lead, and a Kenny Hall slam and a Renaldo Woolridge three (called before the play by much-loved announcer Kara Lawson) cut the Bulldog lead to two with under a minute to play.

The Vols got their stop on a steal by Skylar McBee, but they just couldn't make the final play, a common theme in a long season so far. Tennessee has shown that when they play with discipline in Cuonzo's system, they can hang tough against very good teams, particularly on defense. But their best players are either untalented or inexperienced, and the clutch plays in close games have thus far eluded them.

The Vols could've let this one get away very early, as Mississippi State hit threes and their first two possessions to take a 6-0 lead. But Tennessee toughened up on defense to keep the game even for much of the first half, even with Jeronne Maymon missing fifteen minutes after two quick fouls.

However, as has happened too often this season, Tennessee lost their offensive discipline late in the first half, and transition scoring led the Bulldogs on a 9-2 run in the last two minutes to build a 36-27 lead at the half.

Maymon's foul trouble was again a story in the second half, as he scored 13 points on 6 of 9 shooting but played just 17 minutes, committing two fouls 30 feet away from the basket and finally fouling out with 1:14 to play. Without him, Tennessee's inside game suffered, and while Kenny Hall scored 12 points on 5 of 8 shooting, Mississippi State blocked 9 shots to hold the Vols at bay.

Trae Golden led the team with 20 points on 7 of 11 shooting, 4 of 6 from beyond the arc, which helped Tennessee stay in the game despite Maymon's foul trouble and Cameron Tatum and Josh Richardson going a combined 0 of 11 from the floor. Maymon had 13 and Hall 12, with no other Vol exceeding 5. No Vol had more than 5 rebounds, with Woolridge, Maymon, and Yemi Makanjuola pulling down 5 each to lead the team. Golden led the team with 4 assists but also had 5 costly turnovers.

After struggling to bring the ball up the court against Florida, Wes Washpun did not see the floor in Starkville, with Josh Richardson taking over as the backup point guard.

Tennessee, as you well know, is back in action Saturday at noon against #2 Kentucky at Thompson-Boling Arena, their third straight game against a ranked opponent. The game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN.

While the Vol world was fretting about the unfilled defensive coordinator position and preparing for a men's/women's basketball doubleheader against a pair of top 25 teams in hostile environments, Tennessee quietly made a change in offensive line coaches, with Harry Hiestand, who left for Notre Dame earlier in the day, being replaced by Sam Pittman, until recently of the North Carolina Tar Heels.

Pittman has been at North Carolina since 2007 as offensive line coach and (as of 2011) associate head coach. He was named one of the nation's top 25 recruiters by ESPN.com and has landed top five linemen in each of his last two recruiting classes with the Heels. Before going to North Carolina, Pittman coached the line at Northern Illinois, where his line blocked for 1,500 yard rushers in each of his four years, capped off by Garrett Wolfe's 1,900 yards in 2006.

North Carolina improved from 113th in the nation with 3.0 yards per carry in his first year to 65th with 4.1 yards per carry in 2011, and Pittman will need to orchestrate a similar turnaround at Tennessee, as the Vols were 117th in 2011 with just 2.8 yards per carry.

Many Vol fans are glad to be rid of Harry Hiestand, who coached the offensive line at Tennessee in 2010 and 2011. In addition to a standoffish attitude that made him unpopular with players and media (and perhaps contributed to Tennessee not having a single OL commit for the 2012 recruiting class), Hiestand took a line with four starters returning from 2010 and failed to get much of anything in the way of run-blocking. So after the weeping and gnashing of teeth at the departures of Justin Wilcox, Peter Sirmon, Eric Russell, and Charlie Baggett, this was met with a sigh of relief. And because Hiestand left of his own volition (whether or not his volition was encouraged, we may never know for sure, but there have been whispers), Hiestand will pay Tennessee half his salary instead of the other way around.

Pittman didn't work miracles at UNC and never finished in the top 50 in yards per carry, but he did improve their ground game, and he'll inherit a Tennessee line with four major contributors entering their third year--the magical year in which offensive lineman have often gotten their strength and smarts up to SEC level, so there should be improvement on the field right off the bat. And being a tireless recruiter is always a plus. Whatever else news hits tonight or tomorrow, Tennessee has done well on the offensive line.

The Tampa Bay Lightning have one more trip to Raleigh this season to play the Carolina Hurricanes, and it comes on a weekend. Saturday March 3rd, at 7 PM. Since I am a Raleigh area resident, I'll be going. Cassie is in the DC area, and Tina is in the Charlotte area, so both are close enough to make a weekend trip. So we thought it'd be a good time to meet up and catch a game together. And we'd love to add others from the community, if anyone else can make the trip.

A lot of details can be hashed out later, like whether or not we want to tailgate or whatever (although I'm flying out to Bozeman the next morning, so I won't be pushing for too much late night alcohol). This post is meant to get an idea of how many people are interested and what tickets we want to buy. I have the goal of buying them around the 2nd weekend in January (12th through 15th), so figure out who's in and out, and get me money so I can buy them (I have a PayPal account and a snail mail address that I can give out when we get a little farther along).

Obviously, it's not clear what ticket availability will be like at this time next month. However, we do know that March 3rd is family night, which means that we should be able to get these deals on up to 8 (or 10, I forget) tickets, depending on availability:

*Lower north corners/goal zone (Bolts attacking zone for the 1st and 3rd): $39.75 per ticket

*Upper deck, center ice: $29.75 per ticket

*Upper south corners (Canes attacking zone for 1st and 3rd): $19.75 per ticket

*Upper north goal zone (Bolts attacking zone for 1st and 3rd): $9.75 per ticket.

For what it's worth, I almost always sit in the north upper corners (visitor's attacking zone), because they're the cheapest thing other than upper goal zone, and I feel like the experience is just fine. I've sat all the way up in the top row, but I usually sit in the 6th or 7th, and I really enjoy the latter seats. Those aren't available on the family plan, but two sections over on either side (basically goal zone or center ice) are available as of now.

Hopefully having a month's warning before we actually pull the trigger will allow anybody interested to make sure they can get time off work or whatnot. So what say ye? Anybody else in?

Tarik Black scored 18 points on 7 of 8 shooting and Antonio Barton hit 4 of 5 three point attempts to lead the Memphis Tigers past the Tennessee Volunteers Wednesday night at the FedEx Forum. Trae Golden led all scorers with 22 points on 8 of 14 shooting, but he had no support from other Tennessee shooters in an abysmal offensive performance.

Tennessee opened well on defense, holding Memphis to 3 of 12 from the field, and the Vols actually held a narrow lead at the first half under twelve timeout. But midway through the first half, the Tigers realized that Black could score at will inside, and the game was never close after that, with Memphis shooting over 50% the rest of the way. Not only did Tennessee have no answer, for most of the game it appeared that Tennessee wasn't even trying to defend Black inside, and uncontested dunks ruled the day.

On the offensive side, the Vols seemed determined to get the ball inside in an attempt to duplicate Jeronne Maymon's outstanding performance against Memphis in Maui. But, while the theory may have been good, the reality saw Maymon force numerous bad shots and finish 4 of 15 from the floor. And the Vols got no help from what has been a very good group of outside shooters, as Josh Richardson, Jordan McRae, Cameron Tatum, and Skylar McBee combined to shoot just 4 of 20.

For the majority of the Vol contributors, this was their first experience playing in an environment like the Forum, as Tennessee's only previous road games this season have been against Oakland and College of Charleston. But if jitters were partially responsible for the poor shooting performance, the Vols won't have long to fix the problem, as four of their next five opponents are ranked in the top fifteen.

One positive to take from a bad night was the news that five star recruit Jarnell Stokes had passed through the NCAA Clearinghouse and will be eligible as soon as the paperwork is submitted to the SEC.

Tennessee is next in action Saturday, for a brunch game at 11 AM against #10 Florida at Thompson Boling Arena.