Tennessee Announces “Checker TBA” for Florida Game

Just like with football, Tennessee’s basketball program will attempt to checkerboard their venue when the Florida Gators come to town.

Tennessee announced on Sunday that the match-up between the No. 1 Vols and Florida Gators on Saturday, February 9th will be a “Checker TBA” game in Thompson-Boling Arena.

Spread the word.

Saturday → #CheckerTBA.

Find your color » https://t.co/ZiLwrLnlcX pic.twitter.com/9CyyMCsxI9

— Tennessee Basketball (@Vol_Hoops) February 3, 2019

Last season, Tennessee did a “Checker TBA” game when the Vols hosted the reigning National Champions, North Carolina. The Vols led for a large portion of their game against the No. 7 Tarheels, holding a 38-32 advantage at halftime. But North Carolina would storm back in the second half and ended up winning 78-73.

Tennessee also checkered Thompson-Boling Arena years ago in the Bruce Pearl era.

Checkering a venue at UT may have actually started with the basketball team years ago, but it was the football team that made it popular and a new “tradition” at Tennessee. The football Vols checkered Neyland Stadium for the first time back in 2014 when Florida came to Knoxville. The Vols lost that game by a score of 10-9.

For the next several seasons, Tennessee would have an annual “Checker Neyland” game. The Vols did it against Oklahoma in 2015 and lost in double-overtime. In 2016, they did it again against Florida, and this time UT defeated the Gators 38-28. The 2017 “Checker Neyland” game resulted in the worst loss in Neyland Stadium history, as the Vols fell 41-0 to Georgia.

This past season, fans elected not to participate in a “Checker Neyland” game.

No. 1 Tennessee is set to tip-off against Florida at 4:00 Eastern on Saturday, February 9th. The two teams have already played once this season, and the Vols defeated the Gators 78-67 in Gainesville.