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Tennessee basketball vs. Kentucky: Ranking Vols 5 wins at Rupp Arena

By Caleb Calhoun

LEXINGTON, KY - FEBRUARY 06: Grant Williams #2 of the Tennessee Volunteers and PJ Washington #25 of the Kentucky Wildcats battle for a loose ball during the game at Rupp Arena on February 6, 2018 in Lexington, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
LEXINGTON, KY - FEBRUARY 06: Grant Williams #2 of the Tennessee Volunteers and PJ Washington #25 of the Kentucky Wildcats battle for a loose ball during the game at Rupp Arena on February 6, 2018 in Lexington, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
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4. Feb. 7, 2006

Nearly 30 years after Don DeVoe scored a win at Rupp Arena his first year as Tennessee basketball’s head coach, another first-year head coach was patrolling the sidelines. Bruce Pearl had arrived in the SEC and made an immediate major splash.

One of the things Pearl did was wear the orange jacket against the Vanderbilt Commodores and the Kentucky Wildcats to honor Ray Mears. In early February, he would don that blazer while entering Lexington to face UK for the first time.

At that point, the Vols were the surprise team of the league. Picked fifth to finish in the SEC East, they entered Rupp with a 16-3 record and a 7-1 SEC record while riding a five-game winning streak and ranked No. 13 in the nation. Kentucky, meanwhile, was stumbling under Tubby Smith but still an NCAA Tournament caliber team.

The major storyline here, though, was Chris Lofton. A homegrown Kentucky product, Smith and the Wildcats didn’t recruit him, so he instead went to the Vols. And he shot the Wildcats out of their own gym in this homecoming. It was the ultimate humiliation for Smith, and one of the things that led to growing calls for him to resign, which he would do a year and a half later.

Lofton scored 31 points on 11-of-18 shooting, and he went an amazing 7-of-10 from the three-point line. He was dominant all night, and that led to a huge Vols win. With Pearl’s orange jacket, Lofton’s homecoming, and the role this win played in UT winning the SEC East, there was no doubt that this win was memorable in many ways.

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