What does a pair of sausage biscuits and Tennessee's home court winning streak in men's basketball have in common?

Well, prior to this season probably not too much.

But that's not what Thompson-Boling Arena manager Tim Reese told Ken Johnson, UT basketball's director of operations, before the season started.

Instead, Reese spun a savory tale of tradition involving breakfast and basketball going back through the ages.

Since then, the sausage biscuits have kept coming and Tennessee has kept winning at home.

"My man Tim Reese came to me, as a historian of Thompson-Boling," Johnson recalled earlier this week, "and approached me as back in Ray Mears day ... the operations guy would always bring the facility coordinator breakfast on game days."

Johnson was skeptical and he was right to be since Reese -- who didn't even arrive at UT until after Mears retired -- was making it all up.

Reese also arranged for some other people who work at the arena to back up his story.

"I know that back in Ray Mears' day they didn't even have a director of basketball operations but I went along with it," Johnson said. "He (Reese) changed the director of operations to 'Ray Mears had his money man.' That was his director of basketball operations."

Subsequently, before every home game Johnson has brought Reese breakfast.

"So I was like, 'all right, I'm going to go with just you and you'll get something during breakfast,' " said Johnson, who was on the staff with Bruce Pearl at Southern Indiana and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. "So every game day, from exhibition season on, I've brought my man Reese, McDonald's sausage biscuits."

Once Johnson brought him a pita but that worked, too.

"So you know I take care of him," Johnson said earlier this week as Reese laughed nearby. "To get this facility ready he needs his energy in the morning, so I make sure he starts off his day with a good breakfast."

Reese said that Johnson told him he would buy his breakfast but "as soon as we lose you aren't getting any more."

"They (UT's coaches) are really good guys, they really are," Reese said, "He always gives me two sausage biscuits. I always give one to one of the kids (several UT students work in the arena office) and eat the other one."

So far, UT is 13-0 at home, 15-0 if you count the exhibition games heading into today's home game against Arkansas.

"Hopefully I'll get a little bit of a raise," Johnson said. "He's put a dent in my pocket, all these games.

But he wants to keep buying breakfast.

"We got something going ... we don't want it to stop," Johnson said.

Last Wednesday, during the morning before the Auburn game Johnson stopped by Reese's office and dropped off breakfast.

Reese, after glancing appreciatively into the bag, grinned, "It's a helluva deal isn't it."

"If we keep winning, next year I'll push for lunch."