A simple fact puts Tennessee’s run to the Sweet Sixteen under Rick Barnes into incredible perspective
The Vols are heading back to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament once again.
The Tennessee Vols are heading back to somewhere they’ve spent a lot of time in recent years — the Sweet Sixteen.
The Vols defeated Virginia 79-72 on Sunday night in Philadelphia to advance to the NCAA Tournament’s second weekend for the fourth straight season. They will take on 2 seed Iowa State on Friday night in Chicago at a time still to be determined.
Naturally, Tennessee fans are hopeful that this version of Tennessee basketball will be the first to take the program to the highest level ever — the Final Four. That elusive accomplishment has been the primary complaint about head coach Rick Barnes, who last made the Final Four in 2003 with Texas.
However, things are very good right now on Rocky Top in the basketball world, and that’s particularly the case if you put in perspective what the program has done historically reaching the Sweet Sixteen.
Tennessee reached the Sweet Sixteen just seven times over a 47-year period from 1967-2014. Now, under Rick Barnes, they’ve made it there four times and five in the last seven tournaments.
Tennessee basketball has almost as many Sweet Sixteen appearances under Rick Barnes as they did in the 47 years before him
Go back before Barnes, and any Tennessee fan would’ve been begging for good looks every season at breaking through to the Final Four. And that’s what Tennessee has had over the last several years.
And going back to post-COVID, Tennessee has slowly been chippping away and getting closer each season. They lost in the first round in 2020-21. They made it to the second round (and won the SEC Tournament) in 2021-22 before losing to Michigan in the second round. They beat Duke and made the Sweet Sixteen in 2022-23. In 2023-24, Dalton Knecht led the Vols to the Elite Eight, coming up just short to Zach Edey and Purdue. And last year, Tennessee came up just short again, losing to Houston in the Elite Eight.
Who knows what will happen next weekend in Chicago? Tennessee could get handled by the Cyclones. They might win and have yet another look at a trip to the Final Four.
But regardless, the program has never been in better hands. And fans should be thankful for that.
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