Joe Lunardi reveals Top 16 NCAA Tournament teams

During halftime of Purdue’s game against Iowa, ESPN’s bracketology expert Joe Lundari revealed his top 16 teams if the NCAA Tournament started today. As expected, the Boilermakers are the No. 1 overall seed.

The Big 12 leads the way with four teams being in Lunardi’s rankings, followed by three teams from the Big Ten and two each from the SEC and Pac-12. Purdue, Alabama, Houston and Arizona would all earn No. 1 seeds in their respective brackets.

Purdue, UCLA, Iowa State and Xavier make up the south region. Alabama, Kansas, Virginia and Indiana take the mid-west. Houston, Tennessee, Baylor and UConn would be in the east, and Arizona, Texas, Kansas State and Marquette for the west.

Here is the full list of teams:

1. Purdue
2. Alabama
3. Houston
4. Arizona
5. Kansas
6. UCLA
7. Tennessee
8. Texas
9. Iowa State
10. Baylor
11. Virginia
12. Kansas State
13. Marquette
14. Xavier
15. UConn
16. Indiana

Rick Barnes shares where Tennessee’s offensive confidence lies

Inconsistent offense has been Tennessee’s biggest obstacle this season, especially over the last few weeks. Even so, Rick Barnes doesn’t feel as if it was the nail in the coffin in their 66-65 loss to Vanderbilt on Wednesday.

After the defeat, Barnes said they made enough shots to win the game. He pointed to some late miscues, especially in the final minute and on the final play, that caused the Volunteer’s second loss in three games.

“We’re not gonna make every shot. But we made enough shots,” said Barnes. “If we’d have dunked the ball and not given up the three, we could’ve been there. But we didn’t. That’s it. It got down to one possession in a game like this and we didn’t execute on the defensive end…And it cost us the game.”

Tennessee finished the loss in Nashville with 65 points on a decent 46.7% mark from the field. However, it’s the sixth time in the last eight games that the Volunteers finished with 70 or fewer points.

Over their last three games, where the offense has really struggled, they’ve averaged just 55 points per game. That includes a 46-point outing over the weekend against Auburnwhich, ironically enough, was the sole win in that trio of games.

There’s not a question in the world about Tennessee’s defense this season. They had some rough breakdowns against the Commodores but, as a whole, one poor performance does not a trend make. That’s why, at this point, offense is going to be what separates Barnes’ team from being contenders or pretenders. Now, from here, finding some better, consistent flow on that end just became priority No. 1 in Knoxville.