Vols Basketball Set to Face N.C. State in San Antonio Next Season
(utsports.com) The Tennessee basketball team will face NC State this coming season in a neutral-site contest at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas. The matchup is scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 16, in partnership with the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and its newly branded Hall of Fame Series. The game is part of a doubleheader that also features a women’s showdown of Baylor vs. Miami (Fla.). Tickets for the event are scheduled to go on sale in mid-July. On-sale date, tipoff times, fan experience information and television details will be released at a later date. “Our program has participated in several Hall of Fame events in recent years, and they have always been wonderful experiences for our team,” Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said. “We expect the same caliber of experience when we travel to San Antonio—a great city that knows and loves basketball—to test ourselves against a really talented and well-coached NC State program. Our associate head coach, Justin Gainey, is an NC State grad and was a great point guard for the Wolfpack under Herb Sendek. And growing up in Hickory, North Carolina, I’m very familiar with NC State’s rich basketball history.” The Volunteers are 4-7 against NC State all-time, with UT winning the most recent matchup, 67-58, at the 2017 Battle 4 Atlantis. The upcoming clash marks the fifth neutral-site affair between the programs, with the Vols holding a 3-1 edge against NC State in such matchups. Tennessee is 114-100 all-time against current members of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The meeting with the Wolfpack marks just the second time Tennessee has played in San Antonio, with the first trip to the Alamo City coming in the 2007 NCAA Tournament, a narrow 85-84 loss to top-ranked Ohio State in the Sweet Sixteen. NC State head coach Kevin Keatts enters year seven with the Wolfpack, coming off a 23-11 campaign in 2022-23. Vol fans will find a familiar name on the NC State roster, as the team’s top returning scorer—6-9 forward D.J. Burns (12.5 ppg, .561 FG%)—began his collegiate career as a Vol, redshirting the 2018-19 season on Rocky Top. Other connections in this matchup center on the Tennessee coaching staff. Associate Head Coach Justin Gainey is a two-time NC State graduate that starred as a point guard for the Wolfpack from 1996-2000. Barnes, meanwhile, grew up in Hickory, North Carolina, which is less than a three-hour drive west of Raleigh. A pair of current Vols also hail from the state of North Carolina. Junior forward Jonas Aidoo grew up in Durham, and freshman guard Freddie Dilione V is from Fayetteville. This marks the fifth time in the last six seasons that Tennessee has been invited to participate in a neutral-site event administered by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The Vols defeated top-ranked Gonzaga in the 2018 Jerry Colangelo Classic, beat 20th-ranked Washington in the 2019 James Naismith Classic in Toronto, fell to fifth-ranked Villanova before defeating then-18th-ranked and eventual national runner-up North Carolina at the 2021 Hall of Fame Tip-Off in Connecticut and most recently battled past 13th-ranked Maryland at the 2022 Hall of Fame Invitational in Brooklyn. The Hall of Fame Series, which is owned and operated by Position Sports, is a collection of multi-game, singular events that will showcase several of the top collegiate basketball teams in exciting non-conference matchups played both domestically and abroad.
