National media outlet has harsh truth for Tennessee Basketball
The Tennessee Vols have shown this season that they can play with any basketball team in the nation. But that doesn't mean they're destined for a Final Four. In fact, 247Sports believes Tennessee basketball is a "pretender". On Monday, the national sports media outlet revealed their contenders and pretenders for March Madness this year and […]
The Tennessee Vols have shown this season that they can play with any basketball team in the nation.
But that doesn't mean they're destined for a Final Four.
In fact, 247Sports believes Tennessee basketball is a "pretender".
On Monday, the national sports media outlet revealed their contenders and pretenders for March Madness this year and they listed the Vols as a pretender.
The first surprise, based on Tennessee’s overall rank at No. 5. And it’s probably too harsh to list the Volunteers as a pretender, rather than at the end of this article with the teams to keep an eye on. Of course the Volunteer defense — though it hasn’t been as good lately — meets the threshold … “hasn’t been as good,” basically means the Volunteer defense is merely the nation’s best, as opposed to the best in the KenPom era. It’s the offense, which sits at No. 67, that is letting the Volunteers down here. Of course, a couple weeks of good offense would pull Tennessee back into acceptable range, the problem is that the Volunteers haven’t really looked capable of that of late.
Tennessee fans might not like being called a "pretender", but it's hard to argue that it's not the case.
The Vols have the talent to win a national championship. Again, they can play with anyone.
Tennessee's problem lately has been a lack of consistency. And that's what gets teams knocked out of the tournament early.
The Vols haven't been able to string together several high-quality games in a row. They'll have a great win like against Texas or Alabama and then they'll follow it up with a bad loss (Tennessee hasn't won back-to-back games since late January).
If the Vols are going to give fans any confidence that a deep tourney run is possible this March, they have to find some consistency — specifically when it comes to three-point shooting.
Shooting less than 30 percent from beyond the arc isn't a recipe for success. But that seems to be what we're seeing from the Vols each game. Until they fix that, 247Sports is probably right — the Vols won't be a contender in March.
Featured image via Jamar Coach/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK
