Men's Basketball Opens Season Monday Night At No. 18 Tennessee

Monday, November 3

Knoxville, Tenn.

7 p.m.

Mercer University

#17 Tennessee

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Men's Basketball Opens Season Monday Night At No. 18 Tennessee

11/2/2025 11:24:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Tip-Off is at 7 p.m. from Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville

MACON, Ga. - The Mercer men's basketball team opens its 2025-26 season by visiting one of the best teams in the country in No. 18 Tennessee Monday night in Knoxville, Tennessee.

The game will be broadcasted live on ESPN+, as well as on the Sportsmic App with veteran Mercer broadcaster Rick Cameron handling the play-by-play duties.

ABOUT THE GAME
Date: Monday, November 3 Time: 7 p.m. ET Location: Knoxville, TN I Thompson-Boling Arena TV: ESPN+ Listen Live: Sportsmic Network Live Statistics: MercerStats.com Twitter Updates: @MercerMBB



SEASON PREVIEW The Bears begin the second season of the Ryan Ridder era Monday night in Knoxville. Ridder, and the Bears finsished 14-19 overall last season. Only five players from last year's team return this year for Mercer: Redshirt Freshman Braeden Carlsen, sophomore Brady Shoulders, sophomore Alex Koch, redshirt sophomore Petras Padegimas, and senior TJ Grant. Mercer is opening its season on the road for the first time since the 2022-23 season when the Bears visited East Carolina in the season opener.

SERIES HISTORY
Monday night's game will be the ninth all-time meeting between Mercer and Tennessee. The series is split with each team winning four games. Mercer's last win against the Volunteers was in 2013.

SCOUTING TENNESSEE
Last season, Tennessee finished 30-8 overall and went 12-6 in the SEC which put them in fourth place in the final regular season standings. The Volunteers lost to SEC and National Champion Florida in the SEC Tournametn championship game. In the NCAA Tournament, Tennessee defeated SoCon opponent Wofford in the Second Round and advanced to the Elite Eight where their season came to an end to the Houston Cougars. Rick Barnes, now in his 11th season in Knoxville, enters 2025-26 with the most wins (836) of any active Division I head coach. His team brings back four letter winners, including a starter in senior forward Felix Okpara. Tennessee also welcomes nine newcomers, including Nate Ament, the highest-ranked recruit in program history, and Ja'Kobi Gillespie, a Third Team All-Big Ten selection at Maryland last year. Tennessee enters the year ranked No. 18 in the AP Poll and No. 17 in the Coaches Poll. Tennessee placed third in the SEC preseason poll, behind only first-place Florida and second-place Kentucky. Tennessee's returning leading scorer is Felix Okpara who averaged 7.1 points per game last season. He also finished second on the team in rebounding at 6.4 rebounds per game.