After winning eight of its previous nine games and climbing back into the top 25, Tennessee basketball dropped games at Missouri and home against Alabama this past week.
Now entering the final week of the regular season, Tennessee boasts a 20-9 (10-6 SEC) record. Where do the Vols lands in the SEC standings with the SEC Tournament a week away?
Tennessee is currently tied for fourth place in the SEC along with Kentucky and Missouri. However, the Vols are a combined 0-3 against those two teams and subsequently would be the No. 6 seed in the SEC Tournament if the regular season ended today.
They would face either No. 11 seed Auburn or No. 14 seed Ole Miss in the late game at 9:30 p.m. ET on Thursday night in Nashville. With a Thursday night win, Tennessee would face Arkansas at the same time on Friday night.
The Vols are one game back of Arkansas, two games back of Alabama and one game ahead of Vanderbilt, Texas and Texas A&M.
Earning a top four-seed is significant because it secures a double-bye until Friday’s quarterfinal round of the SEC Tournament.
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Tennessee has a manageable schedule the final week of the regular season. The Vols head on the road to face South Carolina on Tuesday night before returning to Knoxville to face rival Vanderbilt to close the regular season.
Missouri travels to Oklahoma on Tuesday then hosts Arkansas to close the regular season. Kentucky travels to Texas A&M Tuesday before returning home to face SEC Regular-Season Champion Florida to close the regular season.
Behind Tennessee in the standings— Texas A&M faces Kentucky and LSU, Texas faces Arkansas and Oklahoma and Vanderbilt travels to Ole Miss before coming to Knoxville to conclude the regular season.
KenPom predicts Tennessee, Kentucky and Missouri all to finish 11-7 tied for fourth place with Texas, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt all remaining a game behind the trio in the standings.
If Tennessee ends up in a two-team tie, the head-to-head will determine the higher seed. If it’s a three-team tie, seeding will be determined by winning percentage in games between the three teams. If there is still a tie, record against the top seeded team in the conference (Florida) will determine seeding.
Here are the tiebreakers according to the SEC website.
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Two-Team Tie
The following procedure will be used in the following order until the tie is broken:
- Won-lost results of head-to-head competition between the two teams.
- Won-lost record of the two teams versus the No. 1 seed (and proceeding through the No. 14 seed, if necessary).
- Coin flip by the Commissioner.
Three-Team Tie (or more)
When three or more teams are tied, the following procedure will be used in the following order until the tie is broken. If two teams re- main tied after a tiebreaker provision, the two-team tiebreaker formula will be used.
- Best winning percentage of games played among the tied teams (Example: Team A is 3-1, Team B is 2-2 and Team C is 1-3 – Team A would be seeded highest, Team B second-highest and Team C lowest of the three).
- Best winning percentage of the tied teams versus the No. 1 seed (and proceed- ing through the No. 14 seed, if necessary).
- If two teams remain, coin flip by the Commissioner.
- If three or more teams remain, draw by the Commissioner.
