Tennessee Vols will try to prove whether there indeed is a blue blood bias in college basketball
The Tennessee Volunteers begin their SEC tournament play on Friday likely knowing what they need to do to achieve the team's first ever number one seed in the NCAA tournament: win out. That shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, but for those hoping they might be able to earn the honor without winning […]
The Tennessee Volunteers begin their SEC tournament play on Friday likely knowing what they need to do to achieve the team's first ever number one seed in the NCAA tournament: win out.
That shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, but for those hoping they might be able to earn the honor without winning the SEC tournament? It doesn't seem all that likely.
According to ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi, the Tar Heels and Vols are in a razor-thin race, with the teams leapfrogging each other as the weekend goes along.
Unfortunately for those hoping to see UNC lose the ACC tournament, their primary competition in Duke went down on Thursday night to NC State 74-69. The Heels have Pittsburgh and likely Virginia – both on the cut line for the NCAA tournament – as their two obstacles to winning the ACC tournament title. That's not that daunting. And with the conference's three seed in Virginia being a bubble team, it speaks to just how terribly soft the ACC has been this year.
Conversely, the SEC has been a gauntlet with Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, and Auburn among Lunardi's overall top 16 teams. South Carolina is also in play for a 5 or 6 seed.
In other words, if Tennessee can run the table and bring home a tournament championship by going through Mississippi State (projected in the field), South Carolina or Auburn, and either Alabama or Kentucky in the final, that's three tournament teams and potential two top sixteen seeds that Tennessee would have dispatched with to reach the top.
North Carolina did defeat Tennessee head-to-head 100-92 back in November in Chapel Hill. However, Tennessee has had more ranked wins and fewer bad losses since that time while winning the regular season title of a far better conference this year.
If a run to an SEC tournament title doesn't move the needle in Tennessee's favor for a top seed, then there certainly is a blue blood bias in college basketball.
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