Tennessee’s junior shooting guard JaJuan Smith said after Tuesday’s career-high 32-point performance in the Vols’ blowout of Middle Tennessee State that he knew he was in store for a big night when he woke up Tuesday morning with a sore back after spending extra hours on Monday working to break out of an early-season shooting slump.

Smith was in a zone of his own, however, in the Vols’ 109-50 triumph over the Blue Raiders Tuesday night before a crowd of 18,592 at UT’s Thompson-Boling Arena.

Smith, who played just 19 minutes in the game, actually had outscored the Middle Tennessee State team when he received his final ovation from the appreciative home crowd halfway through second half when Tennessee head coach Bruce Pearl subbed him out with the Vols up 88-28.

Pearl acknowledged that Tuesday’s performance was about as good as he could ask for from his squad but said he still felt bad for the visitors after the Vols’ 59-point onslaught.

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