Tennessee basketball moves up one spot in updated Associated Press Top 25
Tennessee basketball moved up one spot in this week’s updated Associated Press Top 25, moving up to No. 7 overall following the 86-44 win over Austin Peay last week at Thompson-Boling Arena.
The top five remained the same, with No. 1 Purdue ahead of No. 2 UConn, No. 3 Houston, No. 4 Kansas and No. 5 Arizona. Texas is sixth.
The Vols are the highest-ranked Southeastern Conference team headed into conference play, one spot ahead of No. 8 Alabama and No. 9 Arkansas. Kentucky is ranked 19th, ahead of No. 21 Auburn and No. 21 Mississippi State.
Vols set to open SEC play at Ole Miss
Tennessee (10-2) open SEC play at Ole Miss (8-4) on Wednesday, a 5 p.m. Eastern Time start on SEC Network at the Pavilion at Ole Miss. The conference home opener is January 3 against Mississippi State at Thompson-Boling Arena, a 7 p.m. ET start on ESPN2.
Ole Miss is No. 73 in the KenPom.com ratings, ranked No. 108 in adjusted offensive efficiency and No. 52 in adjusted defensive efficiency. The Rebels started the season 6-0 but are 2-4 over their last six, with losses to Oklahoma, Memphis, UCF and North Alabama, which upset Ole Miss 66-65 in Oxford on Tuesday.
The Vols have been ranked all eight weeks this season. They were as high as No. 6 on December 12 and as low as No. 22 on November 14 and November 22. They were No. 11 in the preseason AP Top 25, dropped to 22 after the loss to Colorado in Nashville, then bounced back up to No. 13 on November 28, after winning the Battle 4 Atlantis championship.
Olivier Nkamhoua had 20 points, five rebounds and five assists in the win over Austin Peay, with Santiago Vescovi scoring 18 points while going a perfect 5-for-5 from the 3-point line.
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Up Next: No. 7 Tennessee at Ole Miss, Wednesday, 5 p.m. ET, SEC Network
Austin Peay’s 44 points on Wednesday was the eighth time this season Tennessee has held an opponent to 50 points or fewer through the first 11 games of the season. The Vols are No. 1 in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency, giving up just 80.8 points per 100 possessions.
“Defensively, we talk about it,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said after the win. “If we can just find a way to really just lock in and guard, we’ll find a way to manufacture some points. I’ve said it before, when you’re making shots, there’s a lot of teams that can win any night when you’re making shots.”
Tennessee shot 56.3 percent from the field and 44.4 percent from the 3-point line against Austin Peay, going 8-for-18 from the arc.
“We set our goals,” Barnes said. “We have goals every game that we would like to get to and we just want to make every possession count … (the players have) been really locked into our scouting report.”
