CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The first Thursday of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament can be argued as the greatest day on the sports calendar, with 16 wall-to-wall games beginning shortly after noon and ending somewhere around midnight.
Friday brings the exact same scenario but doesn't quite pack the same anticipation punch since some folks are groggy from Thursday's experience.
If your favorite team is playing over these next two days, there is a 25% chance it is tipping off at 9:20 p.m. Eastern or later, which is the case with Tennessee. Seeded second in the Midwest Region, the Volunteers (24-8) will face Saint Peter's (19-13) in the fourth and final of the games taking place Thursday at the Spectrum Center.
The scheduled tip for the Vols and Peacocks is 9:20 on TNT.
So while we wait to see whether Tennessee can advance past the same pesky program that upset Kentucky and Purdue two seasons ago to reach the Elite Eight, here is a six-pack of fun facts regarding the Vols and their history in this March extravaganza.
1. Tennessee is the only school from either the Southeastern Conference or the Atlantic Coast Conference to compete in the past six NCAA tournaments, including this year. Joining the Vols in accomplishing this feat are Gonzaga, Houston, Kansas, Michigan State and Purdue.
2. All six of Tennessee's trips to the NCAA tournament under coach Rick Barnes have come as a region No. 5 seed or better. The downside to this achievement is the Vols have been eliminated by a lower-seeded team on each previous occasion, including last year, when they were seeded fourth in the East Region and were upset by ninth-seeded Florida Atlantic in the Sweet 16.
3. Tennessee's two worst NCAA tournament losses occurred in Charlotte. Jerry Green's Vols were blasted by Southwest Missouri State 81-51 in the second round of the 1999 tournament, and the final game of the otherwise successful Bruce Pearl era ended with a 75-45 defeat against Michigan in the first round in 2011.
4. Vols fifth-year senior guard Santiago Vescovi has 209 career steals and needs three more to break the program mark of 211 that former Cleveland High School standout Vincent Yarbrough amassed during his time in Knoxville from 1998 to 2002.
5. The Vols lost their first four NCAA tournament games before breaking through in 1979 with a 97-81 downing of Eastern Kentucky in Murfreesboro. Tennessee lost its NCAA tourney debut in 1967 to Dayton 53-52, and the Vols fell to Virginia Military Institute 81-75 in the 1976 event despite Ernie Grunfeld's 36-point performance. In 1977, the final game of the Ray Mears era was a 93-88 overtime loss to Syracuse and first-year coach Jim Boeheim.
6. Last but certainly not least is the fact that Tennessee through its first 25 trips to the NCAA tournament has never been eliminated by the eventual national champion. The Vols and Ole Miss are the only remaining charter members of the SEC that haven't been taken out by the eventual winner, as Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt all have.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.