Tennessee Basketball Suffers Defeat in Exhibition vs. Xavier

The Tennessee Volunteers hosted their first of two exhibitions in the month of October on Thursday, as they played against the Xavier Musketeers in Knoxville. While the Vols were expected to win this game, that wasn't the end result. In fact, the Vols lost to the Musketeers.

The final score of the contest was 86-68 in favor of Xavier.

Xavier Defeats Tennessee Basketball

Tennessee forward DeWayne Brown II (6) looks for a chance to shoot while guarded by Xavier forward Nikos Chitikoudis (16) and Xavier forward Jovan Milicevic (24) during a college basketball exhibition game on Oct. 15, 2026, in Knoxville, Tennessee. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

The game began a bit slowly for both teams, but after both teams stalled out on offense, the buckets began flowing. The biggest early bucket would come off the back of a huge play by Terrence Hill Jr., which would result in an and-one.

He seemed to be the star of the first half, but joining him would be Jalen Haralson, who is by far one of the more underrated players that the Vols added. In fact, he finished the half strong, which helped the Vols enter the half with a 35-27 halftime lead. This gave many a reason to believe that Tennessee would walk away with a win.

The second half wouldn't begin the way that the Vols would want. In similar fashion, the Vols' biggest stars early on would remain Hill Jr. and Haralson. The star who would later find light is Braedan Lue, who is a big man that the Vols added to help with defense, and he did just that. Although he would help, this is something that didn't help enough, as in the final eight minutes the Vols would find themselves trailing the Xavier Musketeers 62-59.

The Vols would come out with a massive answer from Terrence Hill Jr., but the Vols also struggled on the defensive side of the ball within the first couple of minutes. The Vols needed to rely on DeWayne Brown II at the line, but his struggles would continue.

The Musketeers would go on a run that seemed unstoppable on the offensive side of the ball. The Vols couldn't figure much out on the defensive side of the ball and simply didn't do enough offensively.

By no means is it worth sitting here and overreacting, as this is an exhibition at the end of the game, but it is safe to say that the Vols will have to fix some things if they have any hope of winning any of the big games they have this season. This is likely going to be used as a wake-up call.

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