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Tuesday, November 10, 2026Nov 10

Vols seeking ‘full 40 minutes’ this time against Kentucky

Tennessee Athletics photo by Andrew Ferguson / Tennessee guard Ja'Kobi Gillespie drives past Kentucky guard Otega Oweh during the 80-78 win by the Wildcats in Knoxville on Jan. 17.
Tennessee Athletics photo by Andrew Ferguson / Tennessee guard Ja'Kobi Gillespie drives past Kentucky guard Otega Oweh during the 80-78 win by the Wildcats in Knoxville on Jan. 17. Tennessee Athletics photo by Andrew Ferguson / Tennessee guard Ja'Kobi Gillespie drives past Kentucky guard Otega Oweh during the 80-78 win by the Wildcats in Knoxville on Jan. 17.

There are certain times throughout the course of a college basketball season when turning the page from a game occurs quickly.

Such is the case this week with Tennessee.

The No. 25 Volunteers won their fourth consecutive contest Tuesday night with an 84-66 throttling of Ole Miss inside the Food City Center, but it didn’t take long in postgame interviews for the topic to turn to Saturday night’s game at Kentucky. The Wildcats are responsible for Tennessee’s only home loss this season, rallying from a 17-point deficit in the first half to stun the Vols 80-78 on Jan. 17.

“They were just tougher than us, especially in that second half,” Tennessee freshman forward Nate Ament said. “It’s a credit to them, because they bounced back a lot in that second half. You can see that they’ve been doing that in a lot of their games.

“We’ve got to play a full 40 minutes against them, or else they’re going to beat us.”