It’s been a tough stretch, to say the least, for Lady Vols basketball. Kim Caldwell’s Tennessee team has lost four games in a row and seven of its last nine outings.
Due to the recent stretch, there have been some outside concerns about the team’s status as far as even making the NCAA Tournament. Though the Lady Vols’ resume has weakened in recent weeks, Tennessee is still projected to be firmly in the field.
While ESPN hasn’t updated its bracketology after the narrow loss at Oklahoma, the Lady Vols project as a 6-seed in that prediction. That’s a good amount of cushion between the projected final four at-large teams to make the field being 12-seeds.
That means, even if Tennessee loses its final two games, which it is projected to do, it should still be somewhat comfortably in the field. However, the seeding will continue to slip and could create a really tough first-round matchup.
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If the Lady Vols do drop their final two games, at No. 6 LSU and vs. No. 5 Vanderbilt, they’d finish with a regular season record of 16-12 (8-8 SEC). A year ago, Caldwell’s team finished 21-8 (8-8 SEC) and was a 5-seed.
The difference is that Tennessee played a much easier out-of-conference schedule and didn’t drop a game to a non-SEC opponent. Also, in their losses, the Lady Vols played well and fell by narrow margins.
This year, Tennessee had a loaded out-of-conference slate and had little success against top opponents. It has also been hammered multiple times by some of the strong competition it’s played in and out of SEC play.
We don’t know exactly how the actual NCAA Tournament selection committee views the Lady Vols right now, but they should be fine to make the bracket. That’d keep Tennessee’s streak of never missing an NCAA Tournament alive, as the only team to be able to claim that.
One Response
Uh no they WILL NOT make the tournament his year. FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!