Look: ESPN's updated bracketology following Tennessee's loss to Kentucky
Tennessee’s loss to Kentucky on Saturday meant moving down one spot in ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi’s latest NCAA Tournament projections. The Vols went from the second team on the No. 2-seed line on Friday to the third team on Monday.
Lunardi’s four No. 1 seeds are Kansas, Purdue, Alabama and Houston. The No. 2 seeds are UCLA, Gonzaga, Tennessee and Texas. Xavier, UConn, Arizona and Iowa State are the No. 3 seeds with Virginia, Kansas State, TCU and Marquette as the No. 4 seeds.
Kentucky moved up to the No. 69 overall seed, the first team out of the field, after the 63-56 win at Tennessee on Saturday.
The Vols (14-3, 4-1 SEC), who dropped four spots to No. 9 in Monday’s updated Associated Press Top 25, go to Mississippi State (12-5, 1-4) on Tuesday (7 p.m. Eastern Time; TV: ESPN2) and play at LSU (12-5, 1-4) on Saturday (4 p.m. ET; TV: ESPN).
Vols stay at No. 2 overall in NET, KenPom.com ratings
Lunardi has five SEC teams in his current 69-team field, with Kentucky and Texas A&M in the first four out, Florida in the next four out and Mississippi State in the “considered” category.
Tennessee remains No. 2 in the NET rankings, the metric the NCAA Tournament selection committee uses to pick the 68 teams in the field. The Vols are 1-1 in Quad 1 games, 5-2 in Quad 2 games, 3-0 in Quad 3 games and 4-0 in Quad 4 games. The best wins so far this season came against Kansas, No. 5 in the NET, and No. 41 Maryland.
KenPom.com also still has Tennessee at No. 2 overall, with the Vols ranked No. 1 in adjusted defensive efficiency for the last seven weeks. They’re ranked 58th in adjusted offensive efficiency.
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Selection Sunday is set for March 12. After the First Four is played in Dayton, Ohio, first and second round games, set for March 16-19, will be played in Birmingham, Ala., Des Moines, Iowa, Orlando, Fla., Sacramento, Calif., Albany, N.Y., Columbus, Ohio, Denver, Col., and Greensboro, N.C. The East Regional will be played at Madison Square Garden in New York while the South Regional is in Louisville, Ky. The West Regional is at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and the Midwest Regional is set for T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo. The Final Four is in Houston at NRG Stadium.
Up Next: No. 5 Tennessee vs. Kentucky, Saturday, 12 p.m. ET, ESPN
The Vols started 4-0 in SEC play, their best start to the conference schedule since the 2018-19 team started 11-0. Tennessee won 63-59 at Ole Miss on December 28, then beat Mississippi State and South Carolina by a combined 77 points, before the 77-68 win over Vanderbilt last week.
Under head coach Rick Barnes, Tennessee has been a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, in 2019, and have twice been No. 3 seed, in 2018 and last season. The Vols were a No. 5 seed in 2021, when the tournament was played in the COVID bubble in Indianapolis.
Tennessee advanced to the Sweet Sixteen in 2019 and the second round in 2018 and last season. The Vols were eliminated in the first round in 2021.
