GREENVILLE, S.C. — It’s been a brutal stretch for Lady Vols basketball, to say the least. After losing to Alabama in its opening game of the SEC Tournament on Thursday, Tennessee has dropped seven-straight games and 10 of its last 12 contests.
Overall, Kim Caldwell’s squad finalizes its NCAA Tournament resume with a 16-13 (8-8 SEC) resume. This features a 9-4 mark at home, 7-6 on the road and 0-3 at neutral sites.
So, do the Lady Vols deserve to make the NCAA Tournament? Caldwell was asked that exact question following the loss to the Crimson Tide.
“Yeah, I do,” Caldwell said. “I think we’ve played the hardest schedule in the country. I think the majority of that came in February, but we have significant wins, and I think that – we hope to get in and continue to try to be a different team.”
More From RTI: Where Lady Vols Basketball Are Projected in ESPN’s Updated Bracketology
According to ESPN, USA TODAY and Her Hoops Stats bracketologies, Tennessee projects as an 8-seed in the NCAA Tournament. This is a fall from being projected as high as a 3-seed earlier in the season.
The Lady Vols’ best wins of the year are on the road at Stanford, Alabama and Georgia and at home against Kentucky. However, Tennessee holds over 20-point losses to UCLA, Louisville, UConn and South Carolina, among other double-digit defeats. The 43-point loss to the Gamecocks on the road was the largest margin of defeat in program history.
However, largely thanks to the strength of schedule, the Lady Vols remain No. 22 in the NET heading into the SEC Tournament. Those rankings are factored in, but not the final say, in the selection committee’s process to seed teams and determine a field.
Selection Sunday is scheduled for March 15 at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN. The first round is slated to be held on March 20-21.
