Officially, the Bruce Pearl men’s basketball era at Tennessee begins with a Nov. 3 exhibition game at home against Southern Indiana.

But, thanks to Pearl, fans will get a sneak peak of the team before the football season kicks off. The Vols will play a shirts vs. skins pickup game at Thompson-Boling Arena at 9 a.m. Saturday.

"We could have more people in there watching pickup games than some teams draw for a regular game,’’ said Pearl, who pushed the idea on UT athletic director Mike Hamilton. "We want to take advantage of 109,000 people on our campus, and we want to establish some tradition.

"We did this at Iowa, and one of the things people came to see was our freshmen and how much the other guys had improved.’’

Pearl said the pickup games will be scheduled throughout football season at times convenient to football kickoffs.

Hamilton said he’s pleased with the way the season schedule fell with the exception of the Memphis game.

"We really wanted to get that game scheduled in December, but we couldn’t work it out,’’ Hamilton said. "From a fans’ perspective, we’ve upgraded our schedule. We play 10 teams that played in the NCAA tournament last season, we’ve got some Saturday games in there for the fans and three Friday night games in November.’’

Hamilton said the Friday night games, like the pickup games on Saturday, were scheduled to take advantage of UT football games on Saturdays.

UT moved a pair of games from Saturday to Sunday, at South Carolina (Jan. 8) and at Georgia (Feb. 12), to get TV exposure on Fox Sports Net and Jefferson Pilot.

The back-to-back road games in Austin and Oklahoma City, were scheduled to get national TV exposure in games against Texas (Dec. 17) and Oklahoma State (Dec. 22) on ESPN and ESPN2. Hamilton said he’s hoping the Vols get the Jan. 18 game at Memphis televised.

UT’s Nov. 30 game with Murray State will be played at 8 p.m. in the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville for two reasons: One, Pearl wanted to play in the facility before the March 9-12 SEC tournament, and, two, it’s a chance for fans in Middle Tennessee to see the Vols play.

Exposure aside, Pearl said the schedule’s designed to put the Vols on the bubble for the NCAA tournament. The non-conference schedule was upgraded significantly from an RPI standpoint.

"There’s no cupcakes in there; we’ll have to play well,’’ Pearl said. "Every year you’ve got to schedule like you’re sitting on the NCAA Committee. They have to see you tried to play people.’’

Pearl said a .500 record or above in SEC action, along with eight or nine wins in non-conference games and a couple of wins in the conference tourney should put the Vols on the proverbial NCAA bubble.

"We’re going to work very hard for it,’’ Pearl said. "But everything we’re doing now, from our training, to our practices to our offense, it’s the first time these guys are doing it. I’m anxious for our fans to get a look at it this Saturday.’’