Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt was introduced during a timeout at the Vols basketball game on Saturday Mike Wilson/News Sentinel
Vol fans are planning an exciting setting for the upcoming matchup between the No. 24 UT mens' basketball team and defending national champion No. 11 North Carolina Tarheels at Thompson-Boling Arena on Sunday, Dec. 17. The 7-1 Vols are coming off a 81-71 home win against the Lipscomb Bisons on Saturday.
Plans to checker Thompson-Boling Arena during the sold-out game are being promoted by the university's athletic department, which issued a release on Saturday asking fans to visit CheckerTBA.com to see which color they should wear based on their seats to help make the event a reality.
The game is set to begin at 3 p.m. on Dec. 17, and Volshop stores will be selling t-shirts in orange and white for fans to wear during the game, according to the release. Vols basketball junior Forward Admiral Schofield said in the release that the atmosphere would be "electric."
"First, we're excited about the opportunity to play a great team like North Carolina at home in front of a sold-out crowd," Schofield said. "But to envision playing that game in front of a human checkerboard of more than 21,000 fans… we can't wait to see it. I know Thompson-Boling Arena is going to be electric."
While plans to checker Neyland Stadium in recent years have seen considerable success with fans, the release pointed out that the tradition first started with a March 2006 game against the then unranked Kentucky Wildcats during Bruce Pearl's first year at UT. The then 11th-ranked Vols, led by Chris Lofton, JaJuan Smith and C.J. Watson, fell to the Wildcats 80-78.
