After a long stretch of waiting, the 2025-2026 basketball season is right around the corner.
Rick Barnes’ Tennessee Volunteers have been hard at work getting ready for the upcoming season. The Vols hosted Ohio State in a closed-door scrimmage earlier in the month and hosted Duke in a televised exhibition game this past weekend in the Food City Center.
Now, though, it’s time for the real thing. The Vols will host Mercer on Monday, Nov. 3, in the season-opener from Knoxville.
ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has been keeping fans up to speed with monthly bracketology updates throughout the summer. He released his final preseason update on Tuesday morning.
In the final update, Lunardi has Tennessee as the 3-seed in the South (Houston) Region. This is a slight difference from Tennessee’s previous Midwest Region landing spot, but the Vols have been on the three-line for the majority of Lunardi’s updates.
Tennessee is projected to play automatic qualifier James Madison as the 14-seed in the first round, followed by a potential matchup against either 6-seed North Carolina or 11-seed VCU in the second round. Those two games are projected to take place in St. Louis. Other notable entries in Tennessee’s Midwest Region include 1-seed Houston, 2-seed Michigan, 4-seed Alabama, 5-seed Gonzaga, 7-seed Creighton, 8-seed Missouri, and 10-seed Mississippi State.
Tennessee’s hypothetical second-round game against UNC is reminiscent of the Vols’ 2023 March Madness draw that saw Barnes’ squad take on fellow ACC team and UNC rival Duke in the second round. The 4-seed Vols beat the 5-seed Blue Devils by a score of 65-52.
Here’s a look at where Tennessee landed in Lunardi’s offseason bracketology updates:
- October: 3-seed, South Region
- September: 3-seed, Midwest Region
- August: 3-seed, Midwest Region
- July: 3-seed, Midwest Region
- June: 2-seed, West Region
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Tennessee’s new-look roster came together for the first time in front of fans this past Sunday night in an exhibition game against Duke from the Food City Center. The roster looks quite different without the household names such as Jahmai Mashack and Zakai Zeigler, but the team still looks strong. The Vols lost to the Blue Devils by a score of 83-76, with Tennessee getting outscored by 13 in the final 20 minutes.
Maryland transfer point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie led the team with 19 points, followed by five-star freshman Nate Ament with 14 points. Tennessee had four total double-digit scorers with Okpara adding in 11 and freshman DeWayne Brown putting up 10 points. Ament, by the way, had the team’s only double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
While Tennessee lost the exhibition game, there’s no reason to overreact before the season actually starts. That being said, though, the combination of the exhibition and the upcoming slate of winnable non-conference games will give Tennessee some much-needed time to gel on the court, figure out what the identity of the team will look like, and get rotations and lineups down from the coaching staff.
Duke, for added context, comes in as a 1-seed in Lunardi’s latest bracketology update. The Blue Devils project to be one of the best teams in the nation this season behind superstar freshman Cameron Boozer (24 points and 23 rebounds against UT).
Tennessee’s season opener will take place on Monday, Nov. 3, against Mercer at the Food City Center. The game will tip off at 7:00 p.m. ET. Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for more Tennessee basketball coverage this season.
Check out Joe Lunardi’s final bracketology update for ESPN here.
