Know Your Foe: UT Martin

By Tucker Harlin

#7 Tennessee (6-0) returns to Thompson-Boling Arena to host UT Martin (2-4) Wednesday. Tip-off is at 4 p.m. ET and the game airs on SEC Network Plus.

As the name suggests, the Skyhawks reside in Martin, TN, in the far northwest corner of the state. They are members of the Ohio Valley Conference, which sent Morehead State to the NCAA tournament in 2024.

The Skyhawks have never gone to the NCAA tournament at the Division I level. Their furthest run in a tournament ended with a 79-66 loss to Evansville in the 2015 CIT, and the Skyhawks also fell to Auburn 87-82 in the 2009 NIT.

Jeremy Shulman is beginning his career in Martin.

Shulman began his career as an AAU coach before forging a path through the junior college ranks. He started as an assistant at East Mississippi Community College (Last Chance U) before taking Eastern Florida State College to five NJCAA tournaments in 14 seasons on the job.

UT Martin’s one Division I victory this season is against Illinois State, a 67-65 nailbiter. Its most recent contest was a 65-53 defeat at the hands of Le Moyne, a game in which Martin shot just over 25% from the floor.

Most of the Skyhawks are either freshman or have been a part of the program for a couple of seasons now. The only portal acquisitions are Vladimer Salaridze via UC Riverside and Lamine Niang out of CSU-Northridge, both of which are big men.

The best scoring option for the Skyhawks actually comes off the bench.

Josu Grullon hails from the Dominican Republic and averages just over 18 points per game. Grullon’s only game in single-digit scoring was the Le Moyne loss, and he’s shooting just over 40% from distance right now.

The only other Skyhawk to average double digits this season is freshman guard Tarence Guinyard. Of his six outings, the 19 points Guinyard scored against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi is his best.