Tennessee Basketball looks set to return to No. 1 in the Associated Press Top 25 and Coaches Poll
Tennessee Basketball was No. 1 in the first NET rankings of the season on Monday morning. The Vols moved up to No. 3 in both the Associated Press Top 25 and Coaches Poll on Monday afternoon and they are currently projected as a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament according to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi.
Now the Vols could be the new No. 1 team in the country.
No. 1 Kansas lost at Creighton Wednesday night, around the same time that No. 2 Auburn fell at No. 7 Duke in the SEC-ACC Challenge. No. 4 Kentucky lost at Clemson on Tuesday night and No. 5 Marquette lost at Iowa State, too.
Tennessee (8-0) beat Syracuse 96-70 Tuesday night at Food City Center. The Vols are off to the best start during the 10-year Rick Barnes era and the program’s best start since the 2000-01 team started 9-0.
No. 3 Tennessee vs. Miami, Tuesday, Jimmy V Classic
Now Tennessee is off until Tuesday, when the Vols face Miami in the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden in New York. The AP Top 25 and Coaches Poll will be updated again Monday afternoon.
Tennessee has been ranked No. 1 twice in program history. The Vols spent four weeks at the top of the polls during the 2018-19 season, when they set a program record with 19 straight wins and won 23 of their first 24 games of the season.
Tennessee spent one week ranked No. 1 during the 31-5 season in 2007-08.
The Vols have been ranked for 64 straight weeks, dating back to the preseason rankings before the 2020-21 season. The previous record was 37 straight weeks ranked, between 1999 and 2001.
Tennessee has been ranked in the top ten 34 of those 64 rankings and in the top five 14 times. The ranking streak is the third longest in college basketball, behind only Houston (90) and Kansas (69).
Last season the Vols were ranked No. 5 or higher 13 times, climbing as high as No. 4 for the final month of the regular season, and were ranked in the top 10 for all but two weeks.
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Vols ranked No. 2 overall in KenPom.com ratings
Tennessee is currently ranked No. 2 overall in the KenPom.com ratings. The Vols are No. 2 in adjusted defensive efficiency and No. 8 in adjusted offensive efficiency.
Lunardi’s NCAA Tournament bracket projection earlier this week had Tennessee as a No. 1 seed in the East, playing the opening weekend at Rupp Arena in Lexington.
The Vols were Lunardi’s No. 3 overall seed and one of 12 SEC teams currently projected to make the tournament. The SEC finished 14-2 in the SEC-ACC Challenge.
“The (SEC’s) dominance of the season’s first month only starts there,” Lunardi wrote of Tennessee and Auburn both as No. 1 seeds. “Kentucky, Alabama and Florida make five SEC teams seeded No. 3 or better.
“By the time we reach 10-seeded Georgia and Arkansas, what would be a record 12 conference members appear in this bracket. Obviously there will be cannibalization once conference play begins, but the road to a motherlode of SEC entries on Selection Sunday has been paved.”
