KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — No. 8 Tennessee opens its 2026-27 men's basketball season on Tuesday, Nov. 3, at 6 p.m. Eastern against the Wofford Terriers at Food City Center. The game will be shown on SEC Network and streamed on the ESPN app, with Roy Philpott and Richard Hendrix on the call and Mike Keith and Chris Lofton on the Vol Network radio broadcast.
The Vols are coming off a 2025-26 season with 25 wins, a fourth straight Sweet 16 and a third straight Elite Eight, the only team in the country to reach the Sweet 16 in each of the last four years and the Elite Eight in each of the last three. Rick Barnes' 861 career wins are second among active Division I coaches and 10th all-time.
The series favors Tennessee, which is 9-0 against Wofford. The teams last met in the NCAA Tournament's round of 64 in Lexington, Kentucky, on March 20, 2025, when the Vols won 77-62 behind 29 points from Chaz Lanier. Barnes is 33-1 in his career against current Southern Conference schools.
Wofford went 19-13 (11-7) last season and was picked third in the SoCon preseason poll. Sophomore guard Chace Watley, a preseason all-conference pick, returns as the Terriers' leading scorer at 9.7 points per game.
Tennessee is rebuilt. Its nine incoming transfers scored 3,880 points at their previous schools last season, and the headliner is Juke Harris, a junior guard from Wake Forest who was named to the Naismith Trophy watch list on Monday. Other newcomers include Dai Dai Ames, Jalen Haralson, Terrence Hill Jr., Tyler Lundblade and Miles Rubin. Barnes has said the new team needs to take care of the ball, close out better, rebound and be patient.
The Vols were among the best rebounding teams of the past 30 years, with a plus-12.6 margin, and they had 10 or more offensive boards in 36 of 37 games. Tennessee is 36-3 in Food City Center home openers, and the average crowd in 38 non-COVID-season home openers is 16,859. The Vols sold out all 14,500 season tickets again this year.
Tennessee was 4-1 against AP top-11 teams last season, beating No. 3 Houston by three, No. 11 Louisville by 21 and, in the NCAA Tournament, No. 9 Virginia by seven and No. 6 Iowa State by 14.