After back-to-back road victories last week, the Tennessee Volunteers basketball team returns home Tuesday to take on the the defending National and SEC Champion Florida Gators.  

Tennessee (19-2, 6-1 Southeastern Conference) is coming off an impressive 76-71 win at Mississippi State, while the Gators (18-4, 5-2 SEC) are looking to rebound after getting throttled by Arkansas 80-61.

The Vols have won three of the four games against Florida since Bruce Pearl took over as head coach in Knoxville.

The only loss during the stretch came last season in Gainesville in a game Chris Lofton missed with an ankle injury. 

This will be the first time the Gators have been unranked against Tennessee in three years.  

While the Gators have dropped out of the polls for the second time this season, the Vols held on to their top-ten ranking this week, moving up to seventh in the latest AP poll.

Chris Lofton's improved play of late is one of the major reasons Tennessee has been so successful up to this point. 

After spending much of the season in a prolonged slump, the senior is averaging over 20 points per game and shooting 51.2 percent (21-41) from behind the arc in the Vols' last four games. 

That's bad news for the Gators who have not been able to stop Lofton in previous years. 

He's averaged 19.2 points and 53.3 percent from the field in five career games against Florida.

Tennessee enters the game with the nation's fourth longest Division I home winning streak at 27 games, including 11 this season. 

The Vols' last loss at Thompson-Boling Arena came against Kentucky in March 2006. 

With a win Tuesday, Tennessee can match the second-longest home win streak in school history, with the longest being 33 games (1935-1937).

Through the Vols first 19 games, they were outrebounded by 1.5 per game, though the last two games have seen an improvement in that area.

Against Mississippi State and Georgia, the Vols outrebounded their opponents by an average of 9.5 rebounds per game.

The Gators are led by a youthful group that has done a surprisingly superb job of replacing the entire starting lineup that won each of the past two national championships.

Leading the way for Florida has been freshman guard Nick Calathes.

The former McDonalds' High School All-American averages 15.8 points and 6.1 assists per game to lead the Gators in each category.

He also contributes five rebounds per game.

Sophomore Marreese Speights has also come up big this year for Florida, averaging 14 points and 7.7 rebounds each game.

Jai Lucas provides the Gators with a threat from three-point range, as the freshman has connected on 50 percent of shots from beyond the arc this year.

Tip-off is scheduled for 9 p.m. with television coverage on ESPN.

Check back with the Tennessee Journalist shortly following the conclusion of the game tomorrow night, as sports editor Cliff Chartrand will provide his insight on the contest and name his player of the game in The Cream of the Crop.

JaJuan to be Honored

Senior guard JaJuan Smith will be honored prior to the contest with his own Senior Night.

Smith is second on the team in scoring this season at 14.4 points per game and leads the team with 1.9 steals per night.

He also contributes 3.3 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game.

Smith averaged less than two points per game as a freshman walk-on under former head coach Buzz Peterson.

However, since Bruce Pearl's arrival Smith has averaged over 13 points per game and connected on 203 3-point shots.

Smith hails from nearby Cleveland, Tenn.