While all the talk around Knoxville right now is with the upcoming football season, there’s still plenty of excitement around the Vols’ basketball season that’s set to begin this fall.
It’ll be a revamped roster for Rick Barnes and his staff, but that’s old news by now. Zakai Zeigler, Jahmai Mashack, and Chaz Lanier are out the door, but the Vols worked hard in the offseason to replace that talent and put themselves back in a position to compete during the postseason next spring.
Some of the Vols’ key additions include Maryland transfer point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie, five-star true freshman Nate Ament, Vanderbilt transfer forward Jaylen Carey, and Louisiana Tech transfer guard Amaree Abram.
Joe Lunardi has been releasing monthly updates to his way-too-early bracketology report for ESPN, with the last one coming this past week. Tennessee has fallen in the report, but not all that far.
The Vols are currently listed as the three-seed in the Midwest Region (Chicago) in the latest update. They’re slated to take on 14-seed UNC Wilmington in the first round, and the winner of Texas A&M/Miami (play-in) and Texas Tech in the second round. Other notable contestants in the region include 1-seed Houston, 2-seed UConn, 4-seed Illinois, 5-seed Alabama, 8-seed Texas, and 10-seed Ole Miss. Northern Colorado, Dalton Knecht’s team before Tennessee, sneaks in as the 16-seed.
More From RTI: Tennessee Basketball Makes The Cut For Blue-Chip Point Guard
This is a slight drop from the Vols’ 2-seed landing spot in the June update. But it’s the same 3-seed line projection as the previous month. It’s clear to see that Lunardi believes that the Vols are right in that range to varying degrees, depending on what shakes out with the Vols’ roster this season.
Two of those Midwest Region-projected teams land in the Vols’ non-conference schedule, while many of the others are obviously in conference.
Tennessee will take on Houston in the Players Era Men’s Tournament in late November and Illinois in Music City Madness from Nashville in early December. Other intriguing non-conference matchups for Tennessee this fall include Duke (exhibition), North Florida (Chaz Lanier’s former program), and Louisville in Knoxville.
The Vols will also host Alabama, Ole Miss, Texas, and Texas A&M throughout the conference slate this season.
Check out the complete look at Joe Lunardi’s updated bracketology report for ESPN here.
