Former Tennessee point guard C.J. Watson hopes to get a call by the end of the second round of tonight's NBA draft.

"I've been told I'm a second-rounder, but if not, I'll sign somewhere as a free agent,'' said Watson, who's staying with his parents in Las Vegas. "I've done individual workouts for 10 teams, and I think overall I did pretty good.

"My first couple, I was nervous, but then I got the hang of it.''

Watson said the teams he worked out for were Houston, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Los Angeles Clippers, Sacramento, Minnesota, Detroit, Dallas, Toronto, Cleveland and San Antonio.

"Most all of the teams are looking at me to play point guard,'' he said, "but some are looking for me to play the point and shooting guard.''

Watson, who led UT to a 22-8 record and the SEC East Division title, said he improved his stock a great deal at the Portsmouth (Va.) Invitational, which featured 64 of the top outgoing collegiate seniors.

"After that, I got a lot more interest from teams,'' said Watson, who led his squad to the finals by averaging 16.3 points per game and hitting 56.7 percent of his shots and 71.4 percent of his 3-point attempts.

In one game, Watson scored 17 points on 8-of-11 shooting and had three rebounds, two steals and an assist.

Watson showed passing skills with the Vols, finishing his UT career second on the all-time assists list with 577 and second all-time with 198 steals.

"Another thing the NBA scouts said they liked was how well our team did,'' Watson said. "That made me look better, that we were that successful in the SEC.''

Watson said he always knew he had professional ability, but he credits Vols' coach Bruce Pearl with helping to bring it out.

"Coach Pearl gets all the credit for my success because he turned me into the player I've become,'' Watson said. "He was the one who got me to attack the basket and allowed me to play more aggressive.

"Now, people see me in a different way.''

Perhaps even in an NBA team's jersey after tonight.

"I'm nervous and I'm anxious,'' Watson said. "But I'm prepared, and now it's just a matter of seeing what happens.''

The last Vols picked in the draft were in June 2002: Marcus Haislip went to Milwaukee on the 13th pick and Vincent Yarbrough went to Denver on the 33rd.

The Toronto Raptors have the first pick in tonight's draft, which begins at 7 p.m. (TV: ESPN).