The Tennessee Volunteers — playing with just six scholarship athletes — knocked off the number one team in the nation, shocking the Kansas Jayhawks 76-68.
Bruce Pearl’s club was playing without second-leading scorer Tyler Smith, who was kicked off the team last week after an arrest on drug and gun charges. Three other Vols — Cameron Tatum, Melvin Goins and Brian Williams — who were arrested along with Smith are on suspension and didn’t play. But the Volunteers who were in uniform — including three walk-ons and two freshmen — played excellent defense, holding top-ranked Kansas to just 37.7 percent shooting.
Scotty Hopson led Tennessee with 17 points. Bobby Maze had 16 and Renaldo Woolridge — playing in Smith’s place — had 14 points and eight rebounds.
Sherron Collins paced Kansas with a game-high 22 points, but center Cole Aldrich was held to just seven. Aldrich did grab 18 rebounds.
Shakeup in Polls Looming
Kansas has been the number one team in the nation since the preseason, but that run will end when the polls are released later today. We could see a significant shakeup in the top ten, as four other highly-ranked teams — fourth-ranked Purdue, fifth-ranked Duke, and eighth-ranked West Virginia all lost this weekend.
Texas and Kentucky — ranked two and three, respectively, in last week’s polls, are the only remaining unbeatens in Division I.
Shorthanded Tennessee Shocks Jayhawks originally appeared on About.com Basketball on Monday, January 11th, 2010 at 11:30:18.
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