Tennessee Basketball will take on in-state rival Vanderbilt in the quarterfinal round of the SEC Tournament on Friday afternoon in Nashville, TN. It’ll serve as the rubber match for a regular-season split between the two programs, but more importantly, there could be further NCAA Tournament stakes on the line for both squads.
Tennessee and Vanderbilt are currently on the 5-seed line in Joe Lunardi’s latest March Madness projections on Friday morning. The other two teams on that line include Arkansas, another team competing in the SEC Tournament on Friday, and St. John’s. With projected 4-seed Texas Tech already losing in the Big 12 tournament this week, Lunardi says that the final 4-seed slot is up for grabs if any of the 5-seed teams can make a run in their conference tournaments this weekend.
“The final 4-seed is available for whichever 5-seed can make a charge,” Lunardi wrote in his Friday morning update.
The winner of the Tennessee-Vanderbilt game will live to fight another day in the quest for a 4-seed, while the loser will likely just stay in their position as a projected 5-seed. A win puts that team in a good spot, but won’t guarantee anything. Arkansas and St. John’s are still alive in their own conference tournaments, with the Razorbacks taking on 11-seed Oklahoma and the Red Storm taking on Seton Hall in the semi-finals on Friday.
Tennessee fans should be rooting for Oklahoma, Seton Hall, and, obviously, themselves during Friday’s slate of games.
— Joe Lunardi (@ESPNLunardi) March 13, 2026
More From RTI: Tennessee Is A Slight Underdog In SEC Tournament Game Against Vanderbilt
The Vols have been projected as a 5-seed in several of Lunardi’s recent projections, and currently come in as the last 5-seed among the four teams.
Friday’s quarterfinal contest between Tennessee and Vanderbilt will be the third time that the in-state rivals have squared off since Feb. 21 this season. Tennessee won the first game by a score of 69-65 in Nashville. Ja’Kobi Gillespie had a team-high 17 points, while Nate Ament scored 13 points including a massive turnaround jumper in the game’s final minutes to keep Tennessee on top. Ament nearly had a double-double with 13 points and nine rebounds.
The second game featured a key difference from the first one, as Tennessee did not have Ament due to injury. Vanderbilt got off to a 15-2 lead out of the gates on Tennessee’s Senior Day, and the Vols never quite got back into things. Tennessee did close the gap in the second half, but Vanderbilt still finished things off with an 86-82 win in Knoxville.
5-seed Tennessee and 4-seed Vanderbilt will square off at approximately 3:30 p.m. ET on Friday afternoon in Bridgestone Arena. Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for live, on-site coverage from the game from Nashville.
