Tennessee Basketball to host open scrimmage Saturday morning at Food City Center

Tennessee Basketball will host an open scrimmage Saturday at 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time at Food City Center, ahead of Tennessee Football’s home game against Arkansas at Neyland Stadium. The football game is a 4:15 p.m. ET start on SEC Network.

The Vols announced the scrimmage plans on Wednesday morning. Admission is free and doors to the arena will open at 11 a.m.

Tennessee will host Ohio State for a closed scrimmage next Saturday and will play an exhibition game against Duke on October 26, wrapping up the preseason schedule.

Up Next: Tennessee vs. Duke, October 26, 7 p.m. ET

The Duke game is sold out and set for a 7 p.m. ET. The game will be televised by ESPN2. The Vols announced dates, times and TV information for the 2025-26 schedule on Tuesday.

“I’m excited about (the Duke exhibition), obviously, for a lot of different reasons,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said last week. “… It’s going to be good. And again, I appreciate (Duke) coming here. We’ll both get a lot out of it.”

The Vols are 8-8 all time against Duke, dating back to 1911. Tennessee won the last meeting 65-52 in Orlando in the second round of the 2023 NCAA Tournament. 

Tennessee opens the regular-season schedule against Mercer on November 3, starts SEC play at Arkansas on January 3 and ends at home against Vanderbilt on March 7. The non-conference schedule includes games against Houston, Louisville, Illinois and Syracuse. 

The Vols have sold out their allotment of 14,500 season tickets for a third straight season. It’s the seventh straight full-capacity season with over 13,000 season tickets sold and the fourth straight with more than 14,000 sold.

Rick Barnes wants more college basketball preseason games

Tennessee lost 66-62 to Indiana in a preseason exhibition last October in Knoxville, won 89-88 at Michigan State in October 2023 and beat Gonzaga 99-80 in a charity exhibition in Frisco, Texas, in 2022.

Michigan and Tennessee were in talks for an exhibition game in Ann Arbor, but the game was never finalized.

“We were supposed to go to Michigan,” Barnes said last week, “and at the end they canceled the game.”

Instead, Ohio State will come to Knoxville for a closed scrimmage on October 18.

“We’ll get some things out of it,” Barnes said of the scrimmage, “but it won’t be the same (as an exhibition). I wish we really could play four or five of those exhibition games. I think one, I think it would cut down on injuries, I do, if we’d get out and play. 

“I think it’d make the year even better. And I think in some ways, keep that pressure because coaches in practice normally go at it pretty good.”