Defense. It's been at the top of the agenda since Tennessee opened basketball practice and it'll be there tonight when the Vols conclude their exhibition season.

Carson-Newman College's Eagles visit for a 7:30 tip-off at Thompson-Boling Arena in what will be the first meeting between the two programs since 1936.

"Our first (exhibition) game we let a D-2 school put up 89 points on us. That's not very good to look at,'' said UT senior Brandon Crump.

"I know coach was disappointed. We need to play better defense this game.''

Crump was referring to Tennessee's helter-skelter 117-89 exhibition win over Tusculum College eight days ago.

The Pioneers, who play in the same NCAA Division II league as Carson-Newman, shot a robust 49 percent from the field and were trailing by only 11 points well into the second half.

Tusculum leveled the floor by running a blistering transition game that offered quick shots before Tennessee set its defense.

"Our guys had never faced that in practice,'' said UT coach Buzz Peterson, "somebody pushing it down their throat that quick. That was a good experience for us.

"I don't know if Carson-Newman is going to push the ball like Tusculum did but we've got to do a good job of getting back and communicating and getting picked up in our half-court defense.''

If the Vols hadn't been exposed to an up-and-down tempo before last week, they have now.

"Transition defense, that's about all we've been working on since the first exhibition,'' said point guard C.J. Watson.

"We were surprised they (Tusculum) shot the ball so well. We just didn't get to them on the catch like we wanted to.''

The Eagles are 0-2 against Division I competition. They lost exhibitions at Clemson, 86-45, and at Radford, 81-61.

Peterson gives thumbs-up to the NCAA legislation that promoted Division I schools playing exhibitions against Division II teams rather than touring ex-collegians.

"I like playing them,'' he said. "They're in shape. They've been practicing. They don't run out of gas.

"Plus, they're local schools and it helps them out. It helps us out also.''

Tennessee will sit freshman guard Jordan Howell tonight to rest his sore ankle.

This is the Vols' final tune-up before opening the season in the Maui Invitational on Nov. 22 against Stanford.

"We want to play better defense than we had last week,'' said Watson, "knowing Stanford is a lot tougher opponent.''

Local Connections: Carson-Newman boasts enough local players to field a lineup: Stan Davis of Farragut; Brian Bogus of Austin-East; Andy Tipton of Maryville; Jonathan Martin of Gibbs; Daniel Singleton of Rutledge.

No Word Yet: As of Friday, UT had not received paperwork confirming the signing of Damion Harris.

Bob Gibbons of Rivals.com reported UT would not offer a scholarship to Oak Hill Academy big man David Palmer during the early signing period. Palmer suddenly became available when Illinois backed off signing him this week.

Mike Strange may be reached at 865-342-6276 or strange2@knews.com.