Despite back-to-back losses entering the NCAA Tournament, ESPN’s college basketball experts haven’t wavered too much on Rick Barnes’ Tennessee Volunteers.
In a season in which Tennessee won the outright SEC regular season championship before the final game of the season, the Vols are entering the tournament as a team that’s looking to regain their confidence. Tennessee guard Jahmai Mashack talked about the underdog attitude that he wants to see the team have in the tournament while Barnes followed up the sentiment by emphasizing how locked in and focused the team needs to be.
Tennessee will enter the NCAA Tournament as the two-seed in a stout Midwest Region, headlined by 3-seed Creighton, 4-seed Kansas, 5-seed Gonzaga, and 6-seed South Carolina. The final boss of the region, 1-seed Purdue, is a team that Tennessee fell to in non-conference play back in November.
ESPN College GameDay host Jay Williams isn’t bothered by Tennessee’s losing streak heading into the tournament. Williams picked Tennessee to win the Midwest Region over Purdue to make the Final Four.
Williams’ Final Four would put Tennessee and Kentucky against each other for a third time this season with the winner going to the National Championship game. To the excitement of Tennessee fans, Williams has the Vols defeating the Wildcats before losing to the UConn Huskies in the National Championship.
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A common talking point regarding Purdue revolves around the Boilermaker’s lack of postseason success the past few years. Purdue lost to 16-seed Fairleigh Dickinson in 2023, 15-seed Saint Peter’s in 2022, and 13-seed North Texas in 2021.
Fellow ESPN College GameDay hosts Jay Bilas and Seth Greenberg both have Tennessee making a nice run but losing to 1-seed Purdue in the Elite Eight in the Midwest Region.
“These two teams played in Maui, and Purdue was difficult for the Vols to match up with,” Bilas wrote for ESPN. “The only caveat: Knecht is much better now. Still, I like Purdue to win.”
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One Response
I can see how their thought process is going, with likely or expected wins. But March Madness (like last year) may again be full of busted brackets. There’s no telling who might fall early, or late. It will be an interesting journey for all.