LAS VEGAS — Tennessee basketball won each of its first two games at the Players Era Festival including a win over the highest ranked team in the event in Houston. But the Vols are not in the event’s championship game, instead facing off against Kansas in the third-place game.
Why is Tennessee not in the championship game despite winning its first two games?
Five teams went 2-0 in the first two games of the tournament. The first tiebreaker is point differential with any individual game maxing out at a 20-point differential.
The Vols are plus-23 with Tennessee which is the third best of the five unbeaten teams. Michigan is plus-40 after dominating San Diego State and Auburn. Gonzaga is +30 after beating Alabama by 10 points and Maryland by 39 points.
Kansas slightly edged past Iowa State to get into the third place game. The Jayhawks are plus-21 after earning wins over Notre Dame and Syracuse. Iowa State defeated St. John’s by one point and Creighton by 18 points for a plus-19 differential.
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The blowout wins for Gonzaga and Michigan put them in the championship game while Iowa State gets left out of the top two games of the tournament.
Tennessee opened up the tournament by routing Rutgers 85-60 on Monday. The Vols lead by 26 points at halftime and by as many as 36 points in the second half before calling off the dogs in the final 10 minutes of the game.
The Vols earned their best win of the season Tuesday, knocking off No. 3 Houston 76-73 in a back-and-forth thriller. Bishop Boswell and Jaylen Carey were fantastic on both ends of the court while Gillespie went for a team-high 22 points with four assists and no turnovers.
Playing Houston hurt Tennessee badly because even though the Vols earned an impressive win, it made it very difficult for them to build a point differential strong enough to make the championship game.
Kansas has played one of the weaker slates in the event so far. They knocked off Notre Dame 71-61 in its opening game of the event before beating Syracuse 71-60 on Tuesday afternoon. The Jayhawks are without star point guard Darryn Peterson with the projected lottery pick battling an injury.
Tipoff between Tennessee and Kansas is at 7 p.m. ET on Wednesday night. TNT is broadcasting the game.
