Tennessee gets hot and wins first SEC Tournament title since 1979

Following the 2015 season, Tennessee named Rick Barnes the next leader of Volunteer hoops. That is turning out to be one of the best hires in recent SEC memory.

On Sunday afternoon, the Vols finished a spectacular run in Tampa and will add some more hardware to their trophy case on Rocky Top. The Big Orange has their first SEC Tournament title since 1979 following a 65-50 win over Texas A&M.

Rick Banes is now 2-9 in conference title games and has claimed his first trophy since the 1994 Big East Tournament with Providence. At Tennessee, Barnes twice lost as a favorite in the championship dropping games to Kentucky (2018) and Auburn (2019). Tennessee basketball now has five tournament titles in program history.

Tennessee (26-7, 14-4) ends the weekend looking like one of the best teams in college basketball. Since getting thumped by Kentucky at Rupp Arena on Jan. 15, the Vols are 14-2 with five KenPom top-25 wins. Tennessee has knocked off Kentucky twice to go along with home wins over Arkansas and Auburn.

The three-point shot was the key as the Vols hit 12 of 28 shots from deep and owned a plus-24 advantage from behind the three-point line. Tennessee now has an outstanding case for a No. 2 seed.

For Texas A&M and Buzz Williams, the incredible run ends as the Aggies fall to 0-2 in SEC title games. After shooting 52 percent from three in the first three games at Amalie Arena, the shots went cold on day four as the Aggies hit just 4 of 19 (21.1%) shots from behind the arc. The Aggies got behind 9-0 early and just did not have enough juice to get over the hump.

A&M should be safely in the field after going 7-1 in their final eight games, but it does not appear to be a slam dunk.

After a fun week in Tampa, SEC basketball will now turn its attention to the selection show on CBS this evening as the league should get seven teams into the Big Dance with Auburn, Kentucky, and Tennessee each having a great chance to land a No. 2 seed.