Experts split on Tennessee Vols' current seeding as final week of the regular season begins
The Tennessee Volunteers' men's basketball team had quite the showing last week. The Vols started with a 92-84 win over then-fourteenth-ranked Auburn in Knoxville. Dalton Knecht caught fire and outscored Auburn 25-21 down the stretch to flip the script in the second half when the Vols were trailing by eight. Tennessee followed that up on […]
The Tennessee Volunteers' men's basketball team had quite the showing last week. The Vols started with a 92-84 win over then-fourteenth-ranked Auburn in Knoxville. Dalton Knecht caught fire and outscored Auburn 25-21 down the stretch to flip the script in the second half when the Vols were trailing by eight.
Tennessee followed that up on Saturday night with another come from behind win in the second half, this time in an 81-74 win over Alabama in Tuscaloosa. The Vols trailed 58-51 but rallied thanks to Zakai Zeigler's 18-point performance and some daggers from Josiah-Jordan James and Jahmai Mashack.
It was an incredibly productive week for the Vols, with wins over teams who have a shot at four seeds or better in the NCAA tournament. One might think that would have been enough to push the Vols over the edge and into one of the four coveted top seeds in the NCAA tournament as projected by "bracketologists".
It depends on which one you ask, it seems.
According to ESPN's Joe Lunardi, the Vols remain the first team out of a one seed, just behind Arizona. Lunardi notes in his most recent update that the margin between Tennessee and Arizona is "razor thin". Perhaps a win over yet another ranked team and tournament lock on Wednesday night at South Carolina would be enough to do the trick.
Tennessee's already done enough for CBS Sports' Jerry Palm, who has the Vols as a 1 seed in the West region. Predictably, he has Arizona as a 2 seed in the same region. In his proposed bracket, the Vols would potentially have to face Texas in the second round or the FAU team that knocked them out of the tournament last year, with 5 seed Kentucky in play in the Sweet Sixteen before potentially Arizona in Los Angeles for a trip to the Final Four. That would be an extremely tough road for the Vols.
Arguing about whether Tennessee should be a one seed while being one win away from clinching a share of the SEC title is something that seemed pretty farfetched about a decade ago. It speaks volumes to how far Tennessee basketball has come under Rick Barnes.
A simple stat shows just how much of an impact Rick Barnes has made on Tennessee basketball
The success of Rick Barnes in Knoxville can be put into perspective by one statistic
