A look at the Battle for Atlantis
Tennessee men’s basketball received a clearer view of its 2013-14 non-conference schedule Monday.
The Vols will face UTEP on Thanksgiving Day in the opening round of the Battle 4 Atlantis followed by a game against either Xavier or Iowa in the next round.
The matchups were released Monday with Kansas facing Wake Forest and Villanova meeting Southern Cal on the opposite side of the bracket.
UT and UTEP will meet in the opening round of the three-day tournament on Nov. 28 at 9:30 p.m. that will be televised on NBC Sports Network.
The News Sentinel also confirmed Morehead State and Tusculum College as non-conference opponents on Monday, filling the program’s out-of-conference schedule.
Tennessee could officially release its schedule with SEC games as early as next week.
UTEP went 18-14 in 2012-13, going 10-6 in Conference USA and finished with an RPI of 97. The Vols and Miners haven’t met since Tennessee traveled to El Paso for the 1962 Sun Bowl Tournament and lost 77-57.
Led by coach Tim Floyd, who is 58-41 in three seasons at the school, UTEP returns three starters, 67.0 percent its scoring and 75.1 percent of its rebounding from a year ago. The roster is filled out by six freshmen, including Isaac Hamilton, a consensus top-25 prep player.
Whether Hamilton will actually be on the Miners’ roster remains to be seen. The 6-foot-5 guard is currently in a tug of war with Floyd to gain a release from his National Letter of Intent, citing an ill grandmother back home in Los Angeles. Floyd has refused the release. The case is now in the hands of the National Letter of Intent Steering Committee in Indianapolis.
Iowa and Xavier, UT’s two potential second-round opponents, both finished with top-100 RPIs last season. Iowa went 25-13, posted an RPI of 61 and lost to Baylor in the NIT championship game. Xavier, which overhauled its roster last season, went 17-14, had an RPI of 95 and lost to UT in Knoxville, 51-47.
UT could meet Xavier twice in the upcoming season, as the Vols will travel to Cincinnati to complete the back-end of a home-and-home contract.
The additions of Morehead State and Tusculum are UT’s fourth and fifth “guarantee games” for the upcoming season. Those teams — along with Tennessee State, Tennessee Tech and USC-Upstate — will visit Thompson-Boling Arena and not receive a return game, collecting a healthy check instead.
Morehead State is coached by former Kentucky standout Sean Woods and finished 15-18 last season.
Tusculum posted a 6-21 record last season. As a Division II opponent, the Pioneers will count on UT’s final record, but not impact its RPI or strength of schedule.
The Vols will also host the The Citadel as part of the Battle 4 Atlantis. Because the tournament is considered an “exempt tournament,” meaning participants can play four games, each team will play one on-campus game that counts as part of the tournament, but has no bearing on the bracket.
Tennessee’s home non-conference schedule is highlighted by dates against Virginia and N.C. State, while the only two true road games are at Xavier and Wichita State.
The games against Virginia, Xavier and Wichita State all complete home-and-home contracts. UT and N.C. State are in the first year of a home-and-home, with the Vols making a return trip to Raleigh, N.C., next season.
Opponents for UT’s two preseason games remain unknown. Martin told the News Sentinel in late June that one will be open to the public at Thompson-Boling Arena against a non-Division I team and the other will be a closed-door scrimmage against another D1 team. Martin is looking for the latter to be a true road scrimmage.
Brendan F. Quinn covers Tennessee men’s basketball. Follow him at Twitter.com/BFQuinn
Tennessee men’s basketball 2013-14 non-conference schedule.
Home: N.C. State, Virginia, Morehead State, Tennessee State, Tennessee Tech, USC-Upstate, The Citadel (part of Battle 4 Atlantis), Tusculum College (Division II).
Away: Xavier, Wichita State.
Neutral Court (Battle 4 Atlantis, Bamahas): UTEP, (Iowa or Xavier), (Kansas, Southern Cal, Villanova or Wake Forest).
Bruce Pearl through the years
Tennessee 82, Auburn 54
Tennessee 70, Missouri 75
Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group
Comments » 28
brod writes:
from the looks of the field, this is a favorable draw for tennessee.
BIVOLAR_BEARE writes:
That's a "W"!!
johnlg00 writes:
Enough decent teams on that slate that it will really mean something if the Vols go undefeated through the end of the year. Not expecting that, of course, but any losses except maybe for Kansas--they lost a lot from last year's team, but will no doubt still be pretty good--will show they still have work to do before the start of conference play. Let's see if the guys can show a little snarl this year!
BrassMonkey writes:
They are no Mercer or MTSU but should be a tough draw.
westknoxrepub writes:
Glad to see Cuonzo abandoning strong non conference scheduling that Pearl established to take on such powerhouses as USC Upstate and a Division II team while only scheduling two road games against competition. THAT should help him finally reach the NCAA tournament after six seasons as a head coach.
mocsandvolsfan writes:
WE should win these and win easily. Kansas?? Ok maybe except Kansas. We won't beat them easily.
Xavier? should be ok. Texas ElPaso?? Got no idea. Virginia and NC St. of course will be very good oppoents.
Golly maybe 2 or three cupcakes!? There are easier teams in the SEC than some of these.
But we can win them all I think. Sure we can. I'm NOT being sarcastic...unless we lose a couple.
Col26ca writes:
You really are a DH, you must play for an American League team.
MikeNPS writes:
Wow! My adrenaline started pumping at the thought of playing junior high school caliber teams like Tusculum and Morehead.
mocsandvolsfan writes:
Agreed that Tusclum and maybe Morehead are cupcakes. This schedule though is not easy overall. SEC, Kansas(most likely) Xavier has always had a bball name. Texas El Paso? again I don't know about this year but the last several have been good if I remember correctly.
Pearl's teams played some easy ones as well.
UT's looking good for this next year. Martin so far is right on target with this team. Let's hope he stays there. He just might for the trolls sake.
mocsandvolsfan writes:
west=Memphis?
k=kook
nox=short for noxious, for obnoxious
repub= going back for more at the pub.
Ok I admit to boredom today. Since this WAS off subject I welcome KNS's review.
mocsandvolsfan writes:
Man you must have had some awesome Jr. High teams in your area! The colleges here might have a shot at those two. Lee University or UTC maybe. Lee's actually changing to Div II or III I don't remember which. But I'm pretty sure they've played Tusculum before.
They should be easy wins or even be considered scrimmages for UT. I'd still go to the games if I could.
ReeseHallRelic writes:
Glad to see you replenished your quota of bile during the offseason. We were kinda worried about you, little fella, since you kinda disappeared once the Vols won eight of their last nine regular season games last winter.
(P.S. Bruce ain't coming back. Still.)
BreatheUT writes:
That Home Non-conference schedule just looks pedestrian. I'm not saying we will win them all but I long for the days of having one big name a year coming into TBA like #1-Kansas or Texas with Kevin Durant. Ohio State with Greg Oden and Michael Conley.
stevefrommemphis writes:
Tusculum? Morehead? The Citadel? Please don't give the football schedulers any ideas.
Seriously, only two of the eight non-conference home games are worth attending.
1vavolfan writes:
It will be hard to make the tournament with this schedule. Citadel, Upstate, Morehead, Tenn Tech and State will destroy the SOS. Martin is clueless, UT should never schedule a D2 team outside of the preseason.
mocsandvolsfan writes:
Every team included vaunted Kentucky and has teams like this on their schedule. Memphis has a whole schedule of mostly lower teams. Or they did in the past. Teams make the tournament every year with Tusculums. Some made it with losses to these kinds of teams. Chaminade? Who'd they beat that made the tourney.
To use this to beat up on Martin is ridiculous. find another path this one doesn't work. BUT don't worry. If Martin has a 19 or less win season you can probably pack his bags. I'm not sure in that case why you'd want to since most of you trolls aren't even UT fans.
But don't worry true fans because UT will be fine and they'll make the tourney this coming year. We could win the SEC. although that'd be tougher than getting in the tourney.
GreeneCountyVol writes:
Tusculum?!!! I hear that South Greene and Chuckey-Doak are looking for a game next year.
brod writes:
he's alive. he's alive.
volboy81 writes:
looks like we are playing a lot of in-state schools. I guess to keep the money in Tennessee. What happened to Memphis? I guess theyre skeered to play us since we're supposed to be good!
underthehill writes:
I can't imagine charging to see Tusculum..but I guess this is only a matter for season ticket holders..and I ain't one.. but I do plan to attend a game or two..both Vols and Lady Vols..
brokendownoldvol writes:
Didn't this Tn team lose to Georgia Southern in the NIT at home last yr.? They could easily split even with this schedule.
hikerdude writes:
Tusculum?? Good grief. There are high schools that can beat Tusculum. Cuonzo is really hurting for wins, I guess.
johnlg00 writes:
Yeah, that guy is a leading southeastern distributor of bile and other less-savory digestive byproducts. He is a bottomless pit of such.
johnlg00 writes:
Isn't it possible that no big-name teams want to play UT at TBA? The fact that Morehead and Tusculum are only now coming on the schedule suggests to me at least that no more big-time games could be set up. Everybody schedules lower-level teams. I'm not saying I like it, but it is by no means a problem with UT's schedule alone. If the Vols win against the higher-rated of their nonconference opponents, the SOS hit--if any, compared to everybody else's SOS--will be minimal. The problem for UT hasn't been that their schedule is too weak, it is that they haven't beaten the better teams on it. That is their challenge this year; not to let any get away that they SHOULD win and at least break even against the better opponents.
mocsandvolsfan writes:
I'm sorry. I don't know who Gonzo is? Whoever this Gonzo person is I still think UT will be fine.
I don't find a lot of merit in your post. Both years we did better than predicted by the experts. Not you but the experts. I admit I'm not an expert but I did predict a good record last year. It wasn't great but IMHO we should have been invited to the tourney...even with a couple of the headcases we no longer have. No names please.
mocsandvolsfan writes:
Hear! Hear! Go Vols and beat the Blue Catz!!! Again!
ReeseHallRelic writes:
"Every year"? He's only been here two years, which is usually not a representative sampling of anything, except for overly simplistic whiners who had their minds made up about CCM from the day he was hired. But you're absolutely right about him losing control of the team... that was obvious down the stretch of the SEC regular season, when that undisciplined squad only managed to win 8 out of the last 9 games.
Yep, you gotta be right: CCM just can't coach a lick!
johnlg00 writes:
CCM haters don't need no stinkin' facts. They have their narrative and nothing will ever move them from it. The likes of GOIYL know what they know, and they have already decided that Martin ain't it. Worse yet, if the Vols DO kick butt this year and recruit up a storm next year, you will never hear the likes of this clown admit he was wrong. He will either continue to run down Martin and his program even with the certainty of being seen as an idiot or we will never hear from him again. The last bit works for me.
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