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'Diving into basketball': Mike Keith ready to start prep work for 2025-26 Tennessee Basketball season

IMG_3593by:Grant Ramey•about 15 hours•

GrantRamey

Tennessee Basketball | Randy Sartin-Imagn Images
(Randy Sartin-Imagn Images) Dec 31, 2024; Knoxville, Tennessee, USA; A basketball lies on the floor before the game between the Tennessee Volunteers and the Norfolk State Spartans at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center.

Mike Keith will be on the job as the new “Voice of the Vols” for Tennessee next week. But he won’t be behind a microphone. Instead, he’ll be getting in some early prep work with Tennessee Basketball and brushing up on his basketball broadcasting.

The hiring of Keith to replace Bob Kesling, who is retiring at the end of basketball season, was announced on Thursday. After 27 years as the voice of the Tennessee Titans, Keith will add basketball to his duties at Tennessee, along with football. 

“That’s why I wanted to start the job now,” Keith told Volquest’s Brent Hubbs this week, “so we could spend this basketball season with me doing a lot of studying, asking a lot of questions, spending time with people and totally figuring out how things fit together. 

“But also figuring out some of the mechanics of, okay, what sort of chart are you going to use? How are you going to build this? What are you going to do?”

Bob Kesling has called Tennessee Basketball since 1999-2000

It was announced in November that Kesling would be retiring this spring. He has spent the last 25 years as the “Voice of the Vols,” succeeding the legendary John Ward after the 1998-99 basketball season. 

Keith said many of his formative days as a Tennessee fan as a child were spent at Stokely Athletic Center, watching Bernard King and Ernie Grunfeld star for the Vols. 

“I love basketball,” Keith told Hubbs. “I mean, basketball was my passion as a little kid. And quite frankly, Tennessee was better in basketball when I started following it than (the Vols) were in football. And so I would keep score with John Ward. My dad mimeographed sheets with all the names on it and I would keep score with him as I listened on a transistor radio. 

“I needed to have more of a life,” Keith added with a laugh, “but I didn’t.”

‘I’m not going to be calling basketball games,” he said, “but we’re going be working on a lot of things towards that’

Tennessee basketball is back among the elite under head coach Rick Barnes, who has won 214 games with the Vols, is coming off an Elite Eight appearance for just the second time in program history and has averaged 26 wins over the last three seasons. 

The Vols spent the last month ranked No. 1 after a 14-0 start to the season, matching a 102-year-old program record, before losing at No. 8 Florida on Tuesday. It was only the third time Tennessee had been ranked No. 1 and the second time under Barnes. 

Tennessee (14-1, 1-1 SEC) goes to Texas (11-4, 0-2) for Saturday night’s game (6 Eastern Time, ESPN2) at the Moody Center in Austin.

Keith said he’ll be “kind of bunkered” while doing basketball prep work.

“I’m not going to be calling basketball games (this season),” he said, “but we’re going be working on a lot of things towards that. Because the important thing is when it’s time for the 2025-26 basketball season, then we’re not going to have time to do all this because we’ll be in the middle of football. 

“And so I want to spend a lot of time on that between now and spring (football) practice of really diving into basketball.”

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