Preview Exhibition: #6 Duke Blue Devils (0-0, 0-0 ACC) vs. #18 Tennessee Volunteers (0-0, 0-0 SEC)

#6 Duke Blue Devils (0-0, 0-0 ACC) vs. #18 Tennessee Volunteers (0-0, 0-0 SEC)

Exhibition Game • Tuesday, Oct. 26 • 7 p.m. ET

Food City Center (21,678) • Knoxville, TN

TV: ESPN2

Radio: Blue Devil Sports Network from LEARFIELD

After a 25 point victory against the UCF Knights in the Brotherhood run exhibition game that saw Cameron Boozer register a double-double with game highs of 33 points and 12 rebounds, while adding four assists the Duke Blue Devils round out their preseason with a trip to Knoxville to take on a top 15 Tennessee Volunteers team that won 30 games this past season and finished with a trip to the Elite Eight.

TV/Video Stream ACCNX
Play-by-Play Tom Hart
Analyst Jimmy Dykes
Producer Joe Taylor
Director Mike Roig

Radio Blue Devil Sports Net.
Play-by-Play David Shumate
Analyst John Roth
Engineer John Rose
In Durham 96.5 FM & 620 AM

Duke Jon Scheyer (Duke ‘10)
Career Record / at Duke 89-22 (4th) / same
vs. Tennessee 0-1

Tennessee Rick Barnes (Lenoir-Rhyne ‘77)
Career Record / at School 836-423 (39th) / 232-109 (11th)
vs. Duke 5-9 / 1-0 with Tennessee

Tennessee is coming off an exceptional 2024-25 campaign which included 30 victories, a fifth-place finish in the AP Poll, 10 AP top-25 wins–a program record—and a Trip to the Elite Eight. The Vols spent the entire season in the AP top-12, including Five weeks at No. 1 to match their prior all-time total.

Tennessee placed third in the SEC preseason poll, as voted on by a select panel of league and national media members. Only Florida, the reigning NCAA champion, and Kentucky finished above Tennessee in the voting. • This was the fourth straight year the Volunteers took a top-three position in the media poll. UT was picked third in 2024-25, first in 2023-24 (it won the league) and third in 2022-23. No other school has a streak of even two years or greater than two total nods across those four campaigns.

The Blue Devils are coming off of a 35-4 season that saw them within a game of a title shot. Duke went 19-1 in conference, winning both the regular season and the ACC Tournament.

The Blue Devils welcome in a number 1 recruiting class after their Final Four run. Jon Scheyer after losing his entire starting lineup to the NBA but retaining core pieces with experience. Leading Duke are experienced returners senior big Maliq Brown and junior guard Caleb Foster, both instrumental pieces in Duke’s run this past season. Duke also returned 3 members from last season freshman class in hot shooting Isaiah Evans, who shot a team high 41.6%. Duke also brings back Darren Harris who has reshaped his body in hopes for a larger role and Patrick Ngongba who similarly has reshaped his frame, coming into this season healthy.

Duke’s freshman class includes the Boozer brothers, Cayden and Cameron, do-it-all forward Nik Khamenia and Italian import Dame Sarr. Duke also added reserves Jack Scott and Ifeanyi Ufochukwu, from Princeton and Rice, respectively.

The Tennessee Volunteers present a unique challenge for the Blue Devils. Duke may again be the more talented team on paper, but the Vols do have weapons and a distinct advantage in experience. Experience will play a factor, as it did in the Blue Devils struggling against an older UCF Knights team in the first half of their first exhibition. Without a lot of practice time in between, it will be interesting to see if Duke comes out any differently on the defensive end against a Tennessee team that can match them size-wise. It will also be a battle of top-ranked freshmen as Duke’s Cam Boozer goes against Tennessee’s Nate Ament a future first rounder in his own right.

At the current time it’s still unknown whether Duke will be with or without freshman Dame Sarr or senior Maliq Brown, both were sidelined in Duke’s previous matchup.