The Southeastern Conference's reigning regular-season and tournament champions will meet twice this winter in men's basketball.
Tennessee, which is coming off its first SEC tournament title since 1979, will face former coach Bruce Pearl and his Auburn Tigers on two occasions, according to the league's announcement Tuesday of each school's conference opponents. Auburn has won two of the last five SEC regular-season crowns after earning just two before in its history.
The Volunteers have Kentucky, South Carolina and Vanderbilt as permanent, twice-a-year opponents and will meet Auburn and Mississippi State twice in the 2022-23 season. Tennessee will face every other league foe, such as Alabama and Georgia, on one occasion.
Arkansas and LSU were the rotating foes Tennessee played twice last season.
Tennessee's upcoming home schedule will have matchups against Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Missouri, South Carolina and Vanderbilt. The road trips will be to Auburn, Florida, Kentucky, LSU, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, South Carolina, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt.
Dates, times and television information on the SEC's 2022-23 schedule will be released at a later date.
Tennessee's 27-8 record this past season was bolstered by a 16-0 record inside Thompson-Boling Arena that included a 67-62 topping of Auburn on Feb. 26. The Vols trailed by 11 early in the second half before rallying for the victory, which ended a six-game series losing streak.
Auburn and Tennessee surprisingly exited the NCAA tournament before reaching the Sweet 16, but both programs expect to be ranked come November.
Eighth-year Vols coach Rick Barnes will have a mix of four established veterans - Santiago Vescovi, Josiah-Jordan James, Olivier Nkamhoua and Uros Plavsic - three rising sophomores - Zakai Zeigler, Jonas Aidoo and Jahmai Mashack - and four newcomers - Tyreke Key, B.J. Edwards, D.J. Jefferson and Julian Phillips.
Key is a graduate transfer from Indiana State, while the other newcomers are freshmen.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.