Tennessee basketball dropped three-spots to No. 24 in this week’s AP Poll, extending its stretch to 90 straight weeks ranked. The Vols fell out of this week’s USA Today Coaches Poll, but received more votes than any other ranked team.
Tennessee basketball’s streak of 90 weeks ranked in the AP Poll is the nation’s second longest behind only Houston. Tennessee has been ranked since the preseason poll ahead of the 2021-22 season. The streak is over four years long, seeing Tennessee win a SEC Regular-Season and Tournament Championship, make the Elite Eight twice and another trip to the Sweet 16.
Rick Barnes’ 11th Tennessee team is coming off a 1-1 week and was in danger of falling out of the top 25. The Vols started the week by coasting past Texas 85-71. But Tennessee followed it up with one of its worst performances of the season, losing at Florida 91-67. The game was tight for 15 minutes before Florida used a run to take a double-digit leaf at halftime and never looked back.
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Ja’Kobi Gillespie was terrific against Texas, scoring a career-high 34 points along with five assists and four rebounds. But turnovers and rebounding both plagued Tennessee in Gainesville as the Gators took 15 more shots than the Vols.
With the loss at Florida, Tennessee fell to 11-5 (1-2 SEC) on the season. It’s a big week for Tennessee, playing two games from the friendly confines of Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center before heading on the road for challenging road matchups at Georgia and Alabama.
Tennessee is the lowest ranked of six SEC teams in this week’s AP Poll including No. 10 Vanderbilt, No. 17 Arkansas, No. 18 Alabama, No. 19 Florida and No. 21 Georgia. The Vols also played non conference games against No. 7 Houston, No. 13 Illinois and No. 20 Louisville.
Tipoff between Tennessee and Texas A&M is at 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday night in Knoxville. Richard Cross and Daymeon Fishback are on the call for the SEC Network.
