Tennessee basketball stayed put at No. 20 in the Dec. 15 AP Poll despite the Vols not playing a game last week. The Vols fell three-spots to No. 23 in this week’s USA Today Coaches Poll.
While Tennessee did not play last week, a pair of its losses aged poorly. That was most prominent with Syracuse who lost at home to Hofstra on Saturday. It was more of a mixed bag for Illinois who opened up Big 10 play with a win at Ohio State before losing to Nebraska on a buzzer beater.
The Vols are one of seven SEC teams in this week’s AP Poll, coming in behind No. 13 Vanderbilt, No. 14 Arkansas and No. 16 Alabama. Tennessee came in ahead of No. 21 Auburn, No. 23 Florida and No. 25 Georgia.
Tennessee is back in action on Tuesday night when they face No. 11 Louisville at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center. They then face Gardner-Webb on Sunday afternoon in their penultimate non conference game of the regular season.
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The Vols enter the matchup against Louisville having lost three straight games. Tennessee fell to Kansas in its final game in the Players Era Festival. They then lost at Syracuse in the ACC-SEC Challenge before losing to Illinois in Nashville.
Led by the backcourt trio of Ryan Conwell, Mikel Brown Jr and Isaac McKneely, Louisville has the nation’s No. 2 offense according to KenPom.
Tipoff between Tennessee and Louisville is 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday night. Karl Ravech and Jimmy Dykes are on the call for ESPN.
