By Brody Rupert
It was a bad week on and off Rocky Top for the University of Tennessee, capped by a road trip to Columbus, S.C., where the Gamecocks upset them.
Men’s basketball worries?
The basketball team played its second exhibition game, and it was much worse than the first.
The Volunteers marched into Cameron Indoor Stadium on Oct. 20th and left with a 39-point loss and a lot of doubt.
Juke Harris, the 6’7” Wake Forest transfer, was named to the All-SEC preseason team, and how did he respond? 2-for-10 shooting, 1-for-4 from three, and two assists. A stat line that is the opposite of what the team wants from its star player.
The team was inefficient across the board, shooting only 34% from the field.
Terrance Hill Jr., who carried the offensive load in the team’s first exhibition game against Xavier, started but saw only five minutes of action.
DeWayne Brown II, the team’s center and likely the only returning player in the starting five, went 0-for-5 from the field.
The lone offensive bright spot was Dai Dai Ames, the 6’2” guard from California, who put up a team-high 19 points on 50% from the field.
There was improvement in some areas from the team’s first game to the second: fewer personal fouls, higher efficiency from the free-throw line, and different players seeing different spots of the floor.
Head coach Rick Barnes is no stranger to experimentation in the preseason; he just has to hope he can help this roster put it all together before the regular season rolls around.
“We’re still looking to see what we can find in terms of a group of guys that are gonna compete,” Barnes said after the loss. “Started the game where, you know, a couple of things – we made a couple of plays here or there, maybe not let them get so far in front.”
Barnes is still looking for his starting five as the season begins.
Tennessee Soccer eliminated
The Lady Vols Soccer team has fallen into a hole during SEC play, and their most recent road loss to the No. 7 Alabama Crimson Tide dug it even deeper.
It was a game that started out positively for the team, getting an early goal off of a mistake by the keeper, which snapped a four-game goalless streak and put them up early. The goal was the first of Sophia Prime’s career and gave all of the momentum to the Vols.
The first half was scrappy on both sides. Lots of penalties and very few shots on goal.
The Vols had a chance to go up by a pair with six seconds remaining in the half when they earned a corner kick. It would be floated up and put in the back of the net – but it would not count. A penalty by Kai Tsakiris would negate the goal, and the team would go into the locker room only up by a goal.
The second half would be a completely different story for the two teams.
A second yellow card from Shae O’Rourke would not only send her off but also leave the team down a player for the rest of the match. A subsequent penalty shot from Larkin Thomason would tie the game up at a goal apiece.
The Vols could not keep up at this point. They were exhausted and the momentum was on the other side of the field. It wouldn’t take long for the Tide to put another goal in the back of the net, and the game would end 2-1, and Tennessee would lose.
At this point, Tennessee is 14th in the SEC standings, and only 12 advance to the tournament.
The two teams ahead of them are Missouri and LSU. They play each other, and the Vols need a tie — LSU won on Sunday, Tennessee is mathematically eliminated.
Lady Vols play their final game of the 2026 campaign against Oklahoma on Nov. 1.
Bright Spot: Lady Vol Volleyball
If there is one bright spot for Tennessee Athletics, it is the Volleyball team. The team is ranked No.9 in the nation and is rolling through the month of October.
The team played two games over the past week, the first of which was a sweep of the Oklahoma Sooners.
Jalyn Stout and Kennedi Rogers led the charge in this game, combining for 22 kills off of a 32-assist performance by Caroline Kerr.
The ladder of the two games was much more exciting: a reverse sweep against No. 4 Kentucky.
The Vols dug a hole fast, falling 15 points through the first two sets, but resilience led to an incredible comeback.
The team started working together so much better, and Kerr’s 46 assists facilitated double-digit kill games for Stout, Rogers, and team leader Chelsea Sutton.
They held on through the final three sets and won the final one 15-10.
On Sunday, the Lady Vols cruised past No. 22 Vanderbilt 3-1 to position themselves in the upper echelon of the SEC in the midst of conference play.