“Can’t stop, won’t stop, like my man Tyler Smith, you can call dude Santa cuz the Boy’s got the gift,

And he came back ready so the league’s got to sit, cuz your boy’s finna’ take Tennessee to the ‘ship.’’

— “Baller Vol” rap, by Renaldo Woolridge

Renaldo Woolridge, one of five true freshmen on the Tennessee men’s basketball team, said he took great care to give Tyler Smith great praise in his recently released song.

“Tyler’s our team leader and everyone looks up to him,’’ Woolridge explained at UT’s media day Tuesday. “It’s only right to pay him the biggest compliment in the song.’’

UT coach Bruce Pearl, citing Smith’s leadership as a key to molding a team featuring six new players, agrees.

“When your hardest worker is your best player, it gives your team a chance to be special,’’ Pearl said, “and that’s the case with Tyler. He gives everyone that confidence and courage, and he has helped the young guys in their transition.

“I can see his leadership; he has a relationship with everyone on and off the court.’’

Pearl knows he could have simply designated Smith as captain. Smith has already been chosen as the preseason SEC player of the year and All-American by various media outlets and publications.

But simply calling Smith “captain” wouldn’t have meant anything if the Vols didn’t recognize Smith’s talents themselves and weren’t willing to follow his lead.

Indeed, some wondered how UT’s talented freshman class would take to an established star like Smith, particularly McDonald’s All-American Scotty Hopson, an NBA prospect in his own right.

Those fears peaked during summer league play in Knoxville, when Smith and Hopson staged a physical showdown that left Hopson with a bloody lip compliments of Smith’s hard play in the lane.

Both players, it seemed, had something to prove to one another in the Pilot Rocky Top League, as the 2,500 fans in the packed Bearden High School gym would attest.

“On the court, it’s always going to be competitive between us,’’ Hopson said with a smile. “But now off the court we spend time together and joke around and have a good time.

“Tyler has really pushed me and the other guys. We know he’ll need to have big numbers for us to win; he’s our best player.’’

Smith appreciates how Hopson handled the challenge and said he has great respect for all of his teammates, old and new.

“I knew going in Scotty is going to play at the next level one day, and I was just trying to show him this isn’t high school anymore,’’ Smith said. “He accepted the challenge and came back at me real hard, and I respect that.

“All of these freshman have great talent, and they all have something special they can do. Our whole team can all really play.’’

And they all love to play beside Smith, according to sophomore Brian Williams, who came in with Smith last season.

“Tyler’s just a great guy and everyone wants to be around him,’’ Williams said. “He’s definitely our leader, our go-to guy and our best player.’’

Freshman post Philip Jurick said Smith’s leadership became evident to him when the team played unsupervised pick-up games in the summer.

“Tyler’s the guy that, when we get to arguing over a foul, he just tells us to shut up, drop it and play,’’ Jurick said. “He knows we listen to him, and everyone respects him.

“Sometimes I get down, and he’ll tell me to hold my head up.’’

Freshman point guard Daniel West said he quickly learned to look for Smith in offensive sets.

“He’s just an all-around player; ain’t nothing he can’t do,’’ West said. “He’s an NBA player, that’s what he is.’’

The 6-foot-7 Smith was projected to go late in the first round of last year’s NBA draft after earning All-SEC honors by leading the Vols in assists (3.4 per game), rebounding (6.7 per game), and field goal percentage (.536) while scoring 13.6 points per game.

Instead, Smith opted to return to UT with hopes of winning a national title while improving his earning potential.

“Tyler really cares about this program; he wants to leave his mark at Tennessee,’’ Pearl said. “He has dreamed about t his his whole life.’’

Smith is humbled by the leadership role.

“To be a team leader at a place I have wanted to play for so long, I just can’t even explain how much it means,’’ said Smith, whose career started at Hargrave Military Academy before a stop at Iowa and a transfer to UT. “I’m trying to step it up. I watch what I do, what I say, where I go and how I act around the young guys.

“I just need to work on being more of a vocal leader.’’

Outside of the “Baller Vol” song, that’s about the only rap on Smith.

Tickets On Sale: Individual tickets for UT’s home games go on sale at 8:30 this morning with some games already sold out.

“We sold 16,600 season tickets, and our individual game tickets for Florida, Kentucky and Memphis have already sold out,’’ said John Currie, UT’s executive associate athletic director. “There’s limited availability for a lot of our other games with less than 1,000 remaining for Gonzaga (Jan. 7), Vanderbilt (Feb. 14) and a couple of other SEC games.’’

The Vols averaged 20,267 per home game in the newly-renovated 21,678-seat Thompson-Boling arena – fourth in the nation — on the strength of an active 32-game-home win streak which ranks as third-longest in the nation behind BYU and Notre Dame.

Pearl is 45-2 in Thompson-Boling Arena since taking over the program three years ago.

Injury Update: Pearl said senior forward Ryan Childress will be out “at least another month to month-and-a-half’’ with the knee injury he suffered playing pickup ball last spring.

“He wants to come back for his senior year, but he’ll be challenged to do that,’’ Pearl said. “Ryan had a pretty serious injury.’’

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.