UT men join the in-crowd

That said, something's going on down by the river.

The Vols (7-1) will be home tonight for a 7 p.m. tipoff (TV: CSS) against Lipscomb University (5-4). Back in October, this one didn't figure to draw much of a crowd.

Back in October, neither did Alabama A&M.

And yet Tuesday night, an announced crowd of 15,797 showed up to cheer the Vols to a 93-68 victory over an opponent Tennessee had never faced from an obscure conference.

"Our marketing department is working triple overtime to help us put people in the seats,'' said first-year coach Bruce Pearl.

Here's some context: The 15,797 figure for Alabama A&M was higher than all but one home game in the 2004-05 season. The Kentucky game drew 16,183.

This year, through five home games -- all non-conference and none considered marquee opponents -- the Vols' average attendance is 15,145.

Last year after five games, the figure was 11,126.

"It feels good,'' said senior Stanley Asumnu. "Last year we wasn't getting this many people to our games.

"We're just excited that the fans are happy, that we're giving them something to be thankful to see.''

Anytime a program changes coaches, at least some initial improvement in attendance is expected. Fans had clearly cooled on the Buzz Peterson regime after four years and have responded to Pearl.

"It's just getting wins,'' said Asumnu. "Wins are the most important thing. They want to look at that win column.''

Actually, it's more than wins. Pearl's uptempo brand of basketball has been a selling point. So has the energy displayed by the players.

"The support (Tuesday) was great,'' said sophomore JaJuan Smith. "Late in shot clock, the crowd was getting into it and counting it down.

"That motivated us and we made some big plays.''

Scouting Report: Lipscomb plays in the Atlantic Sun Conference and is 0-2 against SEC foes this year. The Bisons lost 67-49 at Kentucky and 69-54 at Auburn. The Bisons picked up a road win at ETSU.

Coach Scott Sanderson is the son of former Alabama coach Wimp Sanderson.

Forward Shaun Durant, averaging 10.7 points and 10.0 rebounds, is from London, England. Lakory Daniels, a transfer from Alabama, became eligible two games ago and is averaging 11 minutes off the bench.

The only previous meeting between UT and Lipscomb was a 95-38 victory by the Vols to open the 1954-55 season.

Last year, UT beat Lipscomb's Nashville neighbor and archrival Belmont 77-68.

Vol Report: UT has scored 80 or more points six times in eight games. Last year, the Vols scored 80 only five times. ... Due to the CSS telecast, tip-off is moved up 30 minutes to 7 p.m. ... Free-throw shooting continues to be impressive. The SEC-leading Vols were 12-of-13 against Alabama A&M until a walk-on missed two tries in the final seconds. C.J. Watson was 4-of-4 to improve his SEC-best accuracy to 88.4 percent (38-of-43).