Tennessee basketball moved up one spot to No. 19 in the Dec. 22 AP Poll following a bounce-back 2-0 week. The Vols moved up three spots to No. 20 in this week’s USA Today Coaches Poll. Tennessee entered the week losers of three straight before getting things back on track with victories over Louisville and Gardner-Webb.
Rick Barnes’ 11th Tennessee team opened the week with perhaps its best showing of the season, blitzing then No. 11 Louisville 83-62 in Knoxville. The Vols turned up the heat defensively while Ja’Kobi Gillespie led the way offensively with 23 points and five assists.
Tennessee avoided a pre-Christmas break hangover, routing Gardner-Webb 94-52 on Sunday afternoon. Gillespie and Amaree Abram led the way with 15 points eac,h while both Jaylen Carey and JP Estrella scored in double figures.
The Vols are one of six SEC teams in this week’s AP Poll, coming in behind No. 11 Vanderbilt, No. 14 Alabama and No. 18 Arkansas, while coming in ahead of No. 22 Florida and No. 23 Georgia.
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Tennessee is now off for nine days around Christmas before returning to the court on Dec. 30 against South Carolina State in the final non-conference game of the regular season. The Vols then begin the new year by traveling to Fayetteville to face Arkansas in their SEC opener.
Entering the break, Tennessee boasts a 9-3 record and ranks in the top 20 of every major poll and analytics-based ranking system. The Vols are 3-3 against power five teams— destroying a bad Rutgers team and knocking off strong Houston and Louisville teams.
Tennessee’s neutral site losses against Kansas and Illinois are both solid losses that won’t hurt them in the eyes of the committee. The Vols’ third loss came on the road at a bad Syracuse and is by far their worst loss of the season to date.
Gillespie has been Tennessee’s go-to player, while Nate Ament, Jaylen Carey and JP Estrella have all taken turns playing second fiddle through the first 12 games of the season.
