Where Tennessee basketball is projected to be seeded in NCAA tourney after loss to Vanderbilt
The Tennessee Vols had hopes of earning a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament this season, but those hopes have seemingly disappeared after a road loss to Florida and a heartbreaking loss to Vanderbilt in Nashville. It's possible that Tennessee could still earn a No. 1, but they'd likely need to win out at […]
The Tennessee Vols had hopes of earning a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament this season, but those hopes have seemingly disappeared after a road loss to Florida and a heartbreaking loss to Vanderbilt in Nashville.
It's possible that Tennessee could still earn a No. 1, but they'd likely need to win out at this point.
And based on what we've seen in recent weeks, that seems unlikely.
The good news for Tennessee is that, for now, the Vols are still expected to be one of the top seeds.
CBS Sports bracketology expert Jerry Palm currently has Tennessee as the No. 3 seed in the South region (the early rounds would be played in Greensboro, NC — the hometown of Vols quarterback Hendon Hooker).
Palm has the Vols playing Iona in the first round. If they win that game, they'd play the winner of No. 6 Duke and No. 11 West Virginia.
Tennessee had something of a case to be part of the top line of the bracket prior to losing at Vanderbilt on Wednesday night. After all, the Volunteers have wins over Kansas and Texas. Their problems are that the quality of their wins drops off after those two and that most of their losses have come to teams that are not in contention for a spot in the bracket. The Volunteers fell from a No. 2 seed to a No. 3 seed with UCLA taking Tennessee's place on the second line after jumping up from a No. 4 seed.
It sounds like it's going to be hard for the Vols to improve their seeding much without winning out. In fact, a couple of more losses — which I think should be expected — would probably drop Tennessee to a No. 4 or No. 5 seed in the tourney.
The Vols are safely in the tourney, but they may not be seeded nearly as high as they were expecting to be.
Featured image via George Walker IV-USA TODAY Sports
