Trips to Los Angeles, Memphis and the Virgin Islands, plus a five-star home date with Kansas highlight the Vols' 2009-10 basketball schedule, officially released with times and television by the university today. In all the Vols will play 30 games before heading to Nashville for the SEC Tournament - the 16 standard SEC contests, 11 non-conference games and a three game stint in the Paradise Jam.
Bruce Pearl has continued to schedule competitively for the Vols, as even the "lesser" non-conference home dates are with teams who are traditionally competing for their own conference championships, meaning there are plenty of names your bracket is familiar with in this listing.
16 days 'til football season...85 days until Bruce Ball, Year 5...
Complete schedule after the jump:
2009-10 Tennessee Basketball Schedule
- Fri Nov 13 - Austin Peay - 7:30
- Tue Nov 17 - UNC Asheville - 7:30
- Fri Nov 20 - East Carolina - 3:30 (Paradise Jam Game 1 - St. Thomas)
- Sat Nov 21 - DePaul OR Northern Iowa - 6:00 (Paradise Jam Game 2 - St. Thomas)
- Mon Nov 23 - Paradise Jam Game 3 - St. Thomas
- Fri Nov 27 - College of Charleston - 7:30
- Wed Dec 2 - ETSU - 7:30
- Fri Dec 11 - MTSU - 7:00 (Sommet Center - Nashville)
- Tue Dec 15 - Wyoming - 7:00
- Sat Dec 19 - at USC - TBA
- Wed Dec 23 - North Carolina A&T - 7:00
- Thu Dec 31 - at Memphis - TBA (CBS)
- Wed Jan 6 - Charlotte - 7:30
- Sun Jan 10 - Kansas - 1:30 (CBS)
- Thu Jan 14 - Auburn - 7:00 (ESPN/2)
- Sat Jan 16 - Ole Miss - 1:30 (SEC Network)
- Tue Jan 19 - at Alabama - 7:00 (ESPN)
- Sat Jan 23 - at Georgia - 5:00 (FSN South)
- Wed Jan 27 - Vanderbilt - 7:00 (ESPNU)
- Sun Jan 31 - Florida - 1:00 (CBS)
- Thu Feb 4 - at LSU - 9:00 (ESPN/2)
- Sat Feb 6 - South Carolina - 6:00 (ESPN)
- Tue Feb 9 - at Vanderbilt - 7:00 (ESPN)
- Sat Feb 13 - at Kentucky - 9:00 (ESPN + GameDay)
- Wed Feb 17 - Georgia - 7:00 (SEC Network)
- Sat Feb 20 - at South Carolina - 1:30 (SEC Network)
- Tue Feb 23 - at Florida - 9:00 (ESPN)
- Sat Feb 27 - Kentucky - Noon (CBS)
- Wed Mar 3 - Arkansas - 7:00 (CSS)
- Sat Mar 6 - at Mississippi State - 6:00 (ESPN)
Some additional thoughts:
- With the Vols and Memphis playing on New Year's Eve, you don't want the football team to show up in the Chick-fil-A Bowl or any other Dec. 31 game.
- There are no more breaks within the SEC schedule - apparently every team will play twice a week with no off dates inbetween, which had previously allowed the Vols to schedule teams like Memphis and Ohio State during those openings.
- The SEC schedule opens easy but closes hard for the Vols - no reason Tennessee shouldn't be 5-0 against that opening slate, but the last five games are a nightmare, and you don't want to be on the bubble against that lineup coming down the stretch.