Preview: Vols at South Carolina

7 p.m. (EST) Thursday
Columbia, S.C.
Colonial Life Arena
TV: ESPN

TENNESSEE at SOUTH CAROLINA

LINEUPS

TENNESSEE (17-12, 7-7 SEC)
Probable starters
G Melvin Goins (5-11, Sr., 8.0 ppg/3.3 rpg)
G Scotty Hopson (6-7, Jr., 17.6 ppg/3.4 rpg)
G Cameron Tatum (6-6, Jr., 9.4 ppg/3.3 rpg)
F Tobias Harris (6-8, Fr., 14.3 ppg/7.6 rpg)
C John Fields (6-9, Sr., 2.9 ppg/3.3 rpg)
Off the bench
G Josh Bone (6-3, Sr., 3.3 ppg/1.8 rpg)
F Jeronne Maymon (6-7, So., 3.0 ppg/3.0 rpg)
G Trae Golden (6-1, Fr., 3.1 ppg/1.3rpg)
G Skylar McBee (6-3, So., 2.9 ppg/1.0 rpg)
F Kenny Hall (6-9, So., 1.9 ppg/1.5 rpg)
F Steven Pearl (6-5, Sr., 1.8 ppg/1.5 rpg)
COACH: Bruce Pearl (143-58 in 6th season, 460-142 overall)

SOUTH CAROLINA (14-13, 5-9 SEC)
Probable starters
G Bruce Ellington (5-9, Fr., 13.1 ppg/3.4 rpg)
G Brian Richardson (6-4, Fr., 6.6 ppg/1.7rpg)
F Malik Cooke (6-6, Jr., 9.6 ppg/ 6.6 rpg)
F Damontre Harris (6-9, Fr., 3.6 ppg/3.6 rpg)
F Sam Muldrow (6-9, Sr., 11.0 ppg/7.0 rpg)
Off the bench
F LaKeem Jackson (6-5, So., 7.9 ppg/5.7 rpg)
G Ramon Galloway (6-2, So., 10.5 ppg/2.5 rpg)
F R.J. Slawson (6-8, Fr., 2.4 ppg/2.0 rpg)
G Eric Smith (5-11, Fr., 2.4 ppg/0.6 rpg)
F Johndre Jefferson (6-9, Jr., 1.9 ppg/ 1.7 rpg)
COACH: Darrin Horn (50-39 in 3rd season, 161-87 overall)

STORYLINES: South Carolina, which is locked into last place in the SEC East, caught a break coming into this game. Senior center Brian Williams, arguably UT’s best post player, will miss tonight’s game with an unspecified back issue. Though they need help from other teams in the league, the Vols are still mathematically alive to be the No. 2 SEC East seed and get a first-round bye in next week’s league tournament in Atlanta. To secure that bye, UT needs to win tonight and against Kentucky in Thompson-Boling Arena on Sunday, and the Vols also need Florida to win at Vanderbilt and Georgia to lose at Alabama on Saturday. But even assuming UT will do its part in that deal is a risky bet at this point, considering the Vols are 10-12 since winning their first seven games this season. UT has played better on the road than at home recently, though.

ABOUT THE OPPONENT: South Carolina is 2-8 since opening SEC play with a 3-1 record, and the Gamecocks have lost six of their past seven games. They lost 64-48 at Georgia on Saturday, but the Gamecocks have a few solid players. Ellington is a strong, solid freshman point guard, and Muldrow is a solid scorer, rebounder and shot-blocker in the paint. Muldrow swatted six shots in South Carolina’s 73-67 loss at UT on Feb. 16. Ramon Galloway is a streaky shooter off the bench who will bother the Vols if he gets hot. Cooke has scored at least 10 points in the past five games, and he scored a career-high 22 points in the Gamecocks’ loss in Knoxville. South Carolina likes to play an up-tempo game, which UT coach Bruce Pearl doesn’t mind — as long as it doesn’t become “a tennis match,” Pearl added.

FREE THROWS: UT has won its past eight games against South Carolina, and Pearl is 11-2 against the Gamecocks. ...The Vols have allowed nearly seven points less on the road (60.4) than at home (67.0) in SEC play. ...Despite a dip this season, UT still has 64 SEC wins in Pearl’s six seasons. That’s four more Kentucky and Florida, which are tied for second place. ...Hopson and Harris have taken 700 of UT’s 1,686 shots this season. That’s 41.5 percent of the shots coming from two players. ...UT fell to No. 34 in the RPI rankings after its loss to Mississippi State. That’s a long way from the Vols’ year-end RPI average of 12.4 RPI in Pearl’s first five seasons. ...Harris’s 14.3 points per game rank fourth among freshmen in the nation’s six biggest conferences.

Contact Wes Rucker at wrucker@247sports.com, www.twitter.com/wesrucker247 or www.facebook.com/wesrucker247