No. 14 Tennessee Seeks Revenge Against No. 22 Vanderbilt

Sports News - February 9th, 2010 - Written By John Ritter

Neither Tennessee nor Vanderbilt has set itself apart in the SEC this season, but good home records have them battling for first place none-the-less.

The Volunteers would like nothing more than to halt the Commodores 16-game home win streak on Tuesday as they aim for payback of an 85-76 loss at home doled out by Vanderbilt. That loss broke Tennessee's perfect home record this year, but it would be symmetrical if it can pull of the same feat in Nashville, which would mark the first time this decade that both road teams won in the season series.

The Commodores are favored by 2 1/2, according to Bodog, with a 146 1/2-point total. Vanderbilt hasn't just won at home lately. It's won big, by an average of 16.5 points. And it has covered the spread in eight of it's last 11 Tuesday night games.

The Volunteers swept the season series last year, but the Commodores win on Jan. 27 set into motion a shifting among the conference standings, and led some to believe that they could contend with first-place Kentucky the following week. Although that talk has cooled after the Wildcats pounded Vanderbilt, 85-72, there still is a shot that it can make a run in East.

Jeremy Beal, who leads the team with 14.4 points per game, scored 25 against the Volunteers, and has become his team's most-dangerous weapon.

"Beal was special," Pearl said. "Part of our success against Vanderbilt in the past was that we had got the better of him. Everybody talks about A.J. Ogilvy and whether he's a factor, but in my mind Beal has always been the guy that has made the team go."

The problem is, there hasn't been much firepower after that. After losing to Kentucky, the Commodores backed it up with another miserable effort against Georgia. Despite getting 39 points out of Beal and Brad Tinsley, the rest of the team shot 19.4-percent.

"We've been shooting around 50 percent and tonight it didn't seem like anyone could get one to drop," coach Kevin Stallings said. "Brad and Jermaine were really good, but no one else could get anything going."

Tennessee hasn't exactly wallowed in self-pity since the loss to Vanderbilt. It has won four-in-a-row since, getting monster numbers out of senior forward Wayne Chism. He scored a career-high 30 points in a blowout win over South Carolina, and is averaging 22 points over the last three.

"When Wayne is able to do things like that, inside and out, defend like he did and lead the team, he is a very difficult matchup," Pearl said. "South Carolina did not have an answer for him."

Few do. Chism's impact is magnified with a good defensive effort because the Volunteers have yet to lose this year when holding opponents below 75 points. They've held 20 of the last 27 games under NCAA Basketball Sportsbooks'.