KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The No. 20/18 Tennessee men’s basketball team (2-0) is set to continue the 2025-26 slate at Food City Center Wednesday as it hosts the North Florida Ospreys (0-1). Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. ET.
Fans can stream Wednesday’s game on SEC Network+ and the ESPN app. Andy Brock (play-by-play) and Steve Hamer (color) will have the call.
Fans state-wide can tune in to their local Vol Network radio affiliate to hear New Voice of the Vols Mike Keith and analysts Chris Lofton and John Wilkerson depict the action.
Tennessee has started its 2025-26 regular season with two wins, starting with a 76-61 win over Mercer on Monday, Nov. 3, and most recently a 95-56 rout of Northern Kentucky. Freshman forward Nate Ament received the first SEC Freshman of the Week honors for the 2025-26 season, after leading the Vols in scoring in both contests, averaging 20.5 points, 8.5 rebounds and three assists per game.
THE MATCHUP
• North Florida is the second of three teams on the Volunteers’ schedule they have never met before, joining Northern Kentucky and South Carolina State.
• Coming off a 15-17 (8-10) last year, the Ospreys placed ninth in the ASUN preseason media poll and No. 11 in the preseason coaches’ poll, garnering one first-place vote in the latter.
• With its top five scorers gone from 2024-25, North Florida’s leading returnee is senior guard Kamrin Oriol, who posted 7.3 ppg.
• The Volunteers are 21-1 all-time versus current ASUN members, good for their most wins against any league against which they do not have multiple losses.
• Rick Barnes has a perfect 12-0 ledger against the ASUN’s current membership as a head coach, including a 7-0 mark at Tennessee.
• Chaz Lanier, a Third Team AllAmerican and Jerry West Award winner last season at UT, spent his first four years (2020-24) at North Florida, where he was First Team All-ASUN in 2023-24. Lanier went No. 37 in the 2025 NBA Draft
NEWS & NOTES
• North Florida sophomore guard Dante Oliver is a Knoxville native.
• Tennessee, Alabama and Houston are the only schools to make the last three Sweet 16s. Tennessee, Alabama and Duke are the only three in the last two Elite Eights.
• UT finished fifth in the AP Poll, Coaches Poll and KenPom for the second consecutive season in 2024-25, tying the program best set/tied just one year prior. They were in the AP top 12 all year, with 18 straight top-eight nods to end the year. UT was in the top five 11 times and held the No. 1 spot for five weeks.
• Last season was the first time Tennessee won 30-plus games and made the Elite Eight in the same year.
• With 838 wins, Rick Barnes leads active DI coaches and ranks ninth all-time (min. 10 years in DI).
• Tennessee was picked third in the SEC media preseason poll this year. It marked the Vols’ fourth straight top-three selection—no other school has even a two-year streak—and eighth consecutive top-five pick.
• UT has won 38 non-conference games in a row, since 12/8/20. Per Elias, that ties its second-longest streak ever and is five shy of the school record. More info on Page 5.
• Nate Ament, the SEC Freshman of the Week, became the sixth SEC freshman in the last 20 years (2006-26) with a 23p/8r/5a/2s stat line, joining Reed Sheppard (12/2/23), Brandon Miller (3/12/23), Kennedy Chandler (2/22/22), Ben Simmons (12/2/15) and James Young (1/8/14).
• Nate Ament (23), Ja’Kobi Gillespie (20) and J.P. Estrella (17) became the first Tennessee trio to reach 17 points in the same game since 2/14/24 at Arkansas. It marked the 15th such instance in Rick Barnes‘ UT tenure, with seven of the first 14 coming in 2018-19.
• Tennessee’s 203 victories over the last nine seasons (2017-26) rank seventh in DI. Only Houston (245), Gonzaga (241), Duke (222), Kansas (213), Purdue (208) and Auburn (204) own more. After the Vols, the rest of the top 10 is Liberty (202), Saint Mary’s (202) and San Diego State (200).
WINNING WAYS
• Over the last nine seasons (2017-26), Tennessee paces all SEC programs in postseason victories (23), plus sits a close second in total victories and overall winning percentage with a 202-74 (.732) mark. In that period, UT has three SEC titles (2018 and 2024 regular seasons, 2022 tournament).
• In that same span, the Vols are one of two SEC teams with 190-plus wins or an overall winning percentage above .700, alongside Auburn (203-71; .741).
• Over SEC play across the same period, Tennessee (98-45; .685) is first in league victories and league winning percentage. Only Kentucky (97-46; .678), Auburn (96-48; .667) and Alabama (91-53; .632) are also at 85-plus wins and/or a .600 clip.
• In just the last five seasons (2021-26), the Vols own a 110-36 (.753) overall record. That is good for the most wins and the second-best winning percentage in the SEC, ahead of Auburn (109-33; .768) in the former and closely behind it in the latter.
• In that same span, Tennessee (51-21; .708) is co-second, alongside Alabama (51-21; .708), in the SEC in both league victories and league winning percentage. It is behind only Auburn (53-19; .736).
TENNESSEE TABBED THIRD
• Tennessee placed third in the SEC preseason poll, as voted on by a select panel of league and national media members.
• Only Florida, the reigning NCAA champion, and Kentucky finished above Tennessee in the voting.
• This was the fourth straight year the Volunteers took a top-three position in the media poll. UT was picked third in 2024-25, first in 2023-24 (it won the league) and third in 2022-23. No other school has a streak of even two years or greater than two total nods across those four campaigns.
• Tennessee has received a top-five position in the preseason media poll eight consecutive years, dating back to the 2018-19 edition. That is the longest streak in the league, with only Alabama (six) and Arkansas (five) also owning an active mark of even two.
POLL PRESENCE
• Tennessee has played 243 games as a ranked team in the AP Poll in Rick Barnes‘ tenure, posting a 183-60 (.753) record. A total of 70.8 percent of the Volunteers’ 343 games since Barnes arrived in 2015-16 have come with the team ranked in the AP Poll, all since 2017-18 (243 of 277, 87.7 percent).
• UT is 161-55 (.745) while in the AP top 20 under Barnes, 128-42 (.753) while top-15, 102-33 (.756) while top-10, 50-15 (.769) while top-five, 25-3 (.893) while top-three and 14-2 (.875) while No. 1.
• The Vols are 38-28 (.576) in AP top-25 matchups under Barnes, including 30-21 (.588) with both teams in the top 20, 20-15 (.571) with both in the top 15 and 11-10 (.524) with both in the top 10.
NUMBERS 200 & 205
• Over the last three years (2022-25), Rick Barnes has collected his first victories over FGCU (11/16/22), #10 Texas (1/28/23), George Mason (12/5/23), Georgia Southern (12/12/23), Tarleton State (12/21/23), Norfolk State (1/2/24), Saint Peter’s (3/21/24), #11 Creighton (3/29/24), Montana (11/13/24), Middle Tennessee State (12/23/24) and Northern Kentucky (11/8/25).
• The Norfolk State win gave him triumphs over 200 different current Division I programs; he is now at 205. Barnes was previously the head coach at two of those aforementioned schools.
• In the victory against Saint Peter’s (3/21/24), Barnes hit another 200 mark, as he became the second coach to amass 200 wins at Tennessee.
• In the triumph over Montana (11/13/24), Barnes earned his 205th UT win to pass Don DeVoe for sole possession of second place on the Vols’ all-time list.
• Barnes is one of 19 coaches with 200-plus wins at two DI schools, just six of whom are active.
FRESHMAN PHENOM
• Nate Ament claimed SEC Freshman of the Week honors on 11/10/25, the first such accolade of the year in the league. The last Volunteer to win the award was Julian Phillips on 1/23/23.
• Ament averaged 20.5 ppg, 8.5 rpg, 3.0 apg and 1.0 spg across his first two collegiate outings. He shot 52.2 percent from the floor, 37.5 percent from deep and 82.4 percent at the line. He led all scorers in each of UT’s first two games, with 18-plus in each.
• Ament, against Mercer (11/3/25) became the fifth Tennessee freshman with 18 points in a season opener in the last 20 years (2006-26).
• Next, Ament had 23 points, eight rebounds, five assists and two steals versus Northern Kentucky (11/8/25). He became the sixth SEC freshman in the last 20 seasons (2006-26) to reach that mark, joining Kentucky’s Reed Sheppard (12/2/23), Alabama’s Brandon Miller (3/12/23), Tennessee’s Kennedy Chandler (2/22/22), LSU’s Ben Simmons (12/2/15) and Kentucky’s James Young (1/8/14). Only two other Vols, Chandler and Josiah-Jordan James (3/1/22), have hit those numbers across that two-decade span.
DISHING OUT DIMES
• In each of Tennessee’s first two games of the season, wins over Mercer (11/3/25) and Northern Kentucky (11/8/25), two different players had five-plus assists. The Volunteers had that happen just four total times during the 2024-25 season.
• The four instances were recorded by four different players. Ja’Kobi Gillespie (six) and Ethan Burg (five) did it against Mercer, while it was Nate Ament (five) and Troy Henderson (five) versus Northern Kentucky. In 2024-25, only three different Volunteers ever had five-plus assists in a game.
• Tennessee finished with 24 assists against Northern Kentucky, its most since 11/13/24 versus Montana, when it also had two-dozen.
•Troy Henderson became the first UT freshman with five-plus assists and zero turnovers in a game since Kennedy Chandler (seven) on 3/13/22 in the SEC Tournament title game win over Texas A&M in Tampa, Fla.
