No. 8 Tennessee opened the season by beating Wofford 90-59 on Tuesday night at Food City Center, and DeWayne Brown II looked like a man who has been waiting all summer to rebound something.

Brown finished with 17 points and 17 rebounds on 7-of-11 shooting. That is a double-double before Thanksgiving, before December, before most people have found the remote. Terrence Hill Jr. matched him with 17 points, Tyler Lundblade hit four threes for 12, and Troy Henderson added 10 off the bench.

The numbers that tell you how it went:

• 52-24 in points in the paint. Tennessee lived at the rim.
• 27 fast-break points. Wofford had 6.
• 42-34 on the boards, and Brown had half of ours by himself.
• 15 of 16 at the free-throw line.

Wofford led briefly early, by as many as three. Then the Vols took over, led by as many as 32, and the only real drama left was whether Brown would get to 20 rebounds.

My take: it is one November night against Wofford, so nobody is printing Final Four tickets. But a big man who owns the glass is how Tennessee basketball wins in March, and that is exactly what Brown did in game one. Radford comes to Knoxville next Monday. Saturday, football has a little Kentucky business first.

Follow along on X @fiveandafade and Instagram. Stats from ESPN.

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Jeremy Durham is a sports columnist for TriStar Daily and the founder of Five and a Fade.