The month of March is everything in college basketball. Almost nothing is more important than playing your best when the NCAA Tournament rolls around.

Well, March is now right around the corner and Tennessee basketball just might be rounding into form at the right time this season. The Vols have won six of their last seven games and six-straight SEC matchups.

They're currently sitting at No. 3 in the league and have a chance to get a bye in the SEC tournament if they close strong. After a tough road win at Mississippi State on Wednesday night, national analysts have also seemed to take notice of the Vols' recent surge.

The latest NCAA Tournament bracket predictions dropped in the last few days and Tennessee is predicted to earn their best tourney seed since 2019 when they were a two-seed. Here are the predictions from the bracketology experts…

Jerry Palm/CBS – No. 4 seed vs. No. 13 Wagner 

Bracket Matrix – No. 4 seed vs. No.13 New Mexico State

Joe Lundardi/ESPN – No. 5 seed vs. No.12 North Texas  

Simply getting into the tournament is nice but obviously, the higher the seed, the better.

The biggest criticism of Rick Barnes during his time in Knoxville has been that his teams have great regular seasons and then fizzle out when it matters most. A massively important stretch of games including matchups with Auburn and Kentucky is coming up to end the season and the Big Orange might have a chance to get an even higher seed if they can collect a few more wins. It won't be easy but the opportunity is there for Rick to shed that criticism and make some serious noise in the coming weeks.

It might be nice to see the Vols playing solid basketball later in the season but the real question is: will this surge last through next month? We'll just have to wait and see.