Vols to Face Syracuse in SEC / ACC Challenge in December

(utsports.com) KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The Tennessee men’s basketball team will host Syracuse in the second annual SEC/ACC Challenge, as announced Wednesday evening by ESPN.

Beginning last season, the SEC/ACC Challenge replaced the now defunct SEC/Big 12 Challenge, which was contested from 2014-23. The Volunteers and Orange will play Dec. 3 at Food City Center, with the tip time and specific ESPN network to be announced at a later point.

Tennessee holds a 4-3 record in its all-time series with Syracuse, including notching wins in each of the last three meetings.

The two sides most recently met last season on Nov. 20, 2023, in Honolulu as part of the Allstate Maui Invitational, with Tennessee recording a 73-56 victory. Dalton Knecht, despite missing nearly eight second-half minutes with cramps, paced Tennessee with a game-high 17 points. Fellow fifth-year guard Josiah-Jordan James tallied his sixth-career double-double with 15 points and a game-best 12 rebounds, helping the Volunteers rallied back from an early eight-point deficit to hand the Orange their first-ever loss in the prestigious tournament.

Tennessee is 2-1 versus Syracuse in Knoxville. Prior to last year’s Maui Invitational, the most recent meeting between the two schools was a 66-62 Tennessee upset win over the eighth-ranked Orange in Knoxville on Jan. 19, 2002. Jenis Grindstaff led UT that day with 18 points on 5-of-11 shooting, including a 3-for-6 mark from long range. He added five rebounds, four assists and a pair of steals.

Tennessee is 122-101 all-time against current members of the ACC, including incoming schools Cal, SMU and Stanford. UT head coach Rick Barnes owns an 81-77 head coaching record against those 18 schools, including a 5-10 ledger versus the Orange.

One current Vol—senior guard Zakai Zeigler—hails from the state of New York, having grown up in Long Island.