Tennessee is the fifth-ranked team in the country entering the penultimate weekend of the college basketball regular season as the Vols fight for postseason positioning in the SEC Tournament and the NCAA Tournament ahead.
The Vols have put together an impressive season this year despite a daunting conference slate, highlighted by wins over No. 13 Baylor, No. 23 Arkansas, No. 23 Georgia, No. 14 Mississippi State, No. 5 Florida, No. 15 Missouri, and No. 7 Texas A&M.
The Vols have suffered five losses to three ranked conference opponents (Kentucky x2) and a scrappy unranked Vanderbilt team in Nashville. While Tennessee has had its struggles leading to losses this season, the panic button hasn’t needed to be hit like it has with other teams, such as Texas A&M with its ongoing three-game losing streak in the season’s final stretch.
While Tennessee fans are encouraged by the team’s performance in the regular season, most eyes are on the Vols’ postseason performance in the 10th season of Rick Barnes’s tenure in Knoxville.
Tennessee reached the Elite 8 for the second time in program history behind Dalton Knecht last season, but the Vols have a new set of names for their run in 2025.
ESPN’s Myron Medcalf believes that Tennessee is one of the eight teams that have a legitimate shot at cutting down the nets this April.
Medcalf starts out by noting Tennessee’s offensive presence in the wake of replacing Knecht, Josiah-Jordan James, and Santiago Vescovi this offseason.
“Last season, Zakai Zeigler joined Dalton Knecht … to lead the Vols to the Elite Eight, where they lost to Purdue,” Medcalf wrote about Tennessee. “But this season’s group is arguably even better. Barnes replaced Knecht with Chaz Lanier, another offensive catalyst who has led Tennessee to a 17-0 record when he has scored at least 18 points. He’s joined by Igor Milicic Jr. and Jordan Gainey anchoring one of the best defenses in college basketball.”
The ESPN reporter does acknowledge Tennessee’s deficiencies, though.
“Sure, there are concerns that shouldn’t be overlooked: a 30-point loss at Florida in January, losing both games to Kentucky, and a strange outing at Vanderbilt,” Medcalf wrote. “But those games — plus the two-point loss at Auburn — are the only blemishes on the résumé of a Vols team that has an eerily similar profile to the one a year ago, but this season’s crew doesn’t rely on one player the way last season’s team did.”
Medcalf likes the similarities to last season’s Vols team and believes that Zeigler’s improved play and Lanier’s scoring ability could help Tennessee “compete with the best” this March.
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A good team is one thing, but a good path is something that can truly make or break a team’s run in the NCAA Tournament. While Tennessee does have the ability to compete with the nation’s best teams, no one is opposed to a little bit of luck with the draw on the way to the tournament’s biggest games.
Currently, Tennessee holds the top 2-seed in the East Region in Joe Lunardi’s Bracketology update from Wednesday night. That would put the Vols in the same region as star freshman Cooper Flagg and 1-seed Duke. While some might argue for the location of the East over a 1-seed in the West, Tennessee would have sure loved not to see 1-seed Purdue with a trip to the Final Four on the line last season.
Tennessee has to get through the regular season and the SEC Tournament before any sort of madness in March, though. The Vols will close out the season with a pair of home games against No. 6 Alabama and South Carolina, with a road trip to Ole Miss sandwiched in between them.
Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for live, on-site coverage of the SEC showdown between No. 5 Tennessee and No. 6 Alabama from Knoxville on Saturday afternoon.
Check out Myron Medcalf and Jeff Borzello’s full list for ESPN here.
