Tennessee men’s basketball has sold out its season ticket allotment for a third straight season, the program announced in a release. The Vols have sold season tickets for 14,500 of the 21,678 seats at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center.
It’s the third straight season that Tennessee has reached that mark, the fourth straight season selling at least 14,000 season tickets and the seventh straight full capacity season selling at least 13,000 season tickets. The COVID-19 impacted 2020-21 season saw decreased capacity and therefore fewer season ticket sales.
Season tickets selling out is the latest example of a buzzing excitement around Tennessee basketball entering the 2025-26 season. The Vols announced that their exhibition game with Duke sold out just hours after tickets went on sale to the general public.
Tennessee is coming off its best four-year run in program history. The Vols have been ranked in the AP Poll every week over the last four years, winning a SEC Regular-Season Championship and SEC Tournament Championship in that time. They’ve also made it to the Elite Eight each of the last two seasons with a trip to the Sweet 16 the year prior.
It’s a major season of transition for Tennessee. Gone are program stalwarts Zakai Zeigler and Jahmai Mashack who were a big part of the success of the last four seasons. Also gone are Jerry West Award winner Chaz Lanier, starting power forward Igor Milicic and sixth-man Jordan Gainey.
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Despite all the departures, there’s plenty of reasons to be optimistic about Tennessee this season. The Vols could have a stout front court, returning Felix Okpara and Cade Phillips, getting JP Estrella back from injury and adding Jaylen Carey out of the transfer portal and DeWayne Brown from the prep ranks.
Rick Barnes and his staff added two highly touted players to its roster in Maryland transfer point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie and five-star Nate Ament. Gillespie was an All-Big 10 selection a season ago while Ament is the highest rated signee in program history. Both project to be stars at point guard and small forward.
Shooting guard is the biggest question on the roster. Bishop Boswell is back after playing sparingly as a freshman. He’s battling for minutes with a bevy of players including Louisiana Tech transfer Amaree Abram, international signee Ethan Burg, three-star freshman Troy Henderson, four-star freshman Amari Evans and international signee Clarence Massamba.
Tennessee’s home slate includes matchups against Louisville, Alabama, Auburn, Kentucky, Texas and Vanderbilt this season. The Vols are 60-5 at home over the last four seasons and they’ll look to continue that strong run this season.
