Tennessee Basketball is 17-7 overall and 7-4 in SEC play as the Volunteers prepare to host LSU in a Saturday night matchup from Knoxville this weekend. The Vols are coming off a week that saw them fall at Kentucky last weekend and defeat Mississippi State on Wednesday night in Starkville.
The Vols’ win over the Bulldogs wasn’t all too pretty, though. Tennessee had some big runs in the game that got the lead all the way up to 23 points, but Mississippi State went on an 18-0 run late in the second half to make things dicey. Tennessee still maintained the lead and won the game thanks to Nate Ament’s scoring run to close things out, but the game still got closer than it should’ve.
Despite the win, Tennessee has dropped one spot in Joe Lunardi’s latest bracketology report for ESPN. The Vols maintained their spot as a 5-seed coming out of the Kentucky loss last Tuesday, but have now dropped to a projected 6-seed in the Midwest Region following the win over Mississippi State.
Tennessee’s got a projected first-round matchup against 11-seed Miami OH in Philadelphia, with a potential second-round game against either 3-seed Michigan State or 14-seed ETSU on the horizon. Other notable entries in Lunardi’s Midwest Region include 1-seed Michigan, 2-seed Iowa State, 4-seed Alabama, and 5-seed Louisville.
Other SEC teams in Lunardi’s Friday bracketology update include 3-seed Florida, 4-seed Vanderbilt, 4-seed Alabama, 5-seed Arkansas, 7-seed Kentucky, 8-seed Auburn, 9-seed Texas A&M, 10-seed Georgia, 11-seed Missouri, and 11-seed Texas. Missouri and Texas are listed as two of the last four teams in the field overall, while Georgia is listed as one of the last four teams to skip the First Round round.
More From RTI: Where Nate Ament Lands in NBA Mock Draft Are Recent Monster Showings
After two straight road games with a 1-1 record, Tennessee will return to Knoxville for a Saturday evening matchup against LSU in the Food City Center. The Tigers are 14-10 overall this season and Tennessee is a point favorite heading into the game.
Following the LSU game, Tennessee will have four more contests to close out the month of February: against Oklahoma, at Vanderbilt, at Missouri, and against Alabama. The Volunteers will then close out their regular-season slate with a road contest at South Carolina and a home game against Vanderbilt.
Tennessee will host LSU at 6:00 p.m. ET on Saturday evening in Knoxville. Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for live, on-site coverage of the game this weekend.
