Tennessee basketball gets majorly disrespected after win against Texas
The Tennessee Vols solidified themselves as national championship contenders on Saturday night via their 82-71 win against the Texas Longhorns. Tennessee's win over Texas, however, didn't earn the Vols any respect from the national media. CBS Sports' Gary Parrish, one of the most well-known college basketball analysts in the country, has Tennessee at No. 5 […]
The Tennessee Vols solidified themselves as national championship contenders on Saturday night via their 82-71 win against the Texas Longhorns.
Tennessee's win over Texas, however, didn't earn the Vols any respect from the national media.
CBS Sports' Gary Parrish, one of the most well-known college basketball analysts in the country, has Tennessee at No. 5 in his updated top 25.
Parrish has Alabama, a program that lost by 24 points to unranked Oklahoma on Saturday, at No. 2.
Alabama and Tennessee both have three losses this season.
Here's Parrish's reasoning:
The Crimson Tide got smacked at Oklahoma, 93-69, so you might be wondering why Alabama remains No. 2 in Sunday morning's updated Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings. Fair question. The answer is that I simply do not believe anybody other than No. 1 Purduehas a better body of work than Alabama even after that 24-point loss to the Sooners. The Crimson Tide are still 18-3 overall, including 8-0 in the SEC, with a 6-3 record in Quadrant 1 and zero losses outside of the first quadrant. Literally every school in the country besides Purdue either has fewer Quadrant-1 wins than Alabama and/or more Quad 1 losses than Alabama and/or more losses outside of the first quadrant than Alabama.
I can't keep up with when losses matter in college sports and when they don't.
During football season, fans were told that Tennessee's 25-point loss to South Carolina was why they finished below Alabama in the final top 25 rankings despite the Vols having better wins than the Crimson Tide (plus UT beat Bama head to head).
But when it comes to college basketball, losses apparently don't matter.
I guess it's whatever fits the popular narrative of the week. And this week's narrative is that Alabama's 24-point loss to Oklahoma and Tennessee's win against No. 10 Texas were irrelevant when it comes to how each team is viewed by the national media.
I'm sure Vols fans won't be surprised by this — it's just a continuation of what Tennessee's football team deal with in 2022.
Featured image via Calvin Mattheis/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK
