After a disappointing year two under Kim Caldwell, Lady Vols basketball hit the reset button. With the entire roster departing either due to eligibility or the transfer portal, Caldwell built a new roster essentially from scratch through the portal and a pair of high school commits.
As a result, it’s tough to accurately project how Tennessee will perform next year. Regardless, Charlie Creme of ESPN released his first bracketology following the bulk of transfer portal movement, predicting the NCAA Tournament field.
In the projection, the Lady Vols are slotted as a 9-seed in the NCAA Tournament. They are also listed as one of the final four teams to earn a bye as an at-large bid.
This is a one-spot jump from the 10-seed that Caldwell’s squad earned a year ago before being defeated in the Round of 64 by NC State. This time, it’d be an opening game against 8-seed Colorado.
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The winner of that game would get the winner between 1-seed Duke and 16-seed Howard. Those first two games would both be played on the Blue Devils’ home floor. The storyline with Duke is obvious, too. Kara Lawson, a former UT player, is the head coach.
If the Lady Vols return to the Sweet 16 for the second time under Caldwell, it’d mark a trip to Las Vegas in this projection. The other regional site is Philadelphia.
The likely opponent in this round would be 4-seed UCLA or 5-seed Kentucky. An Elite Eight appearance would then likely be against 2-seed USC or 3-seed Vanderbilt.
Tennessee is one of 10 SEC teams projected to make the field. This is the second most in the country, behind the Big Ten’s 11.
