Tennessee moves up to a No. 1 seed in Joe Lunardi's latest NCAA Tournament projection
ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has bumped Tennessee up to a No. 1 seed in his latest NCAA Tournament projection, moving the Vols up to the fourth spot on the top seed line after Kansas lost Monday at Baylor.
The Jayhawks lost to TCU at home on Saturday and lost at Kansas State last week.
The Vols have never been a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. They were a No. 2 seed in 2008 and 2019, advancing to the Sweet Sixteen both years.
Tennessee (16-3, 6-1 SEC) hosts Georgia (13-6, 3-3) on Wednesday (7 p.m. Eastern Time; TV: SEC Network) at Thompson-Boling Arena. No. 10 Texas comes to Knoxville for the Big 12-SEC Challenge on Saturday, a 6 p.m. ET start on ESPN.
The Vols moved up to No. 4 in the Associated Press Top 25 on Monday, moving up five spots after multiple highly ranked teams were upset last week.
Vols ranked No. 2 overall in NET, KenPom.com ratings
Tennessee is No. 2 overall in the KenPom.com ratings, ranked No. 1 in adjusted defensive efficiency and No. 31 in offensive efficiency. Houston, which was upset at home by Temple on Sunday, remains at No. 1 overall in the KenPom ratings.
The Vols are also No. 2 in the NET, the metric used by the NCAA Tournament selection committee to seed the 68-team field. They have a 3-1 record in Quad 1 games, a 5-2 record in Quad 2 and a combined 8-0 record in Quad 3 and Quad 4 games.
After the loss to Kentucky on January 14 at Thompson-Boling Arena, Tennessee bounced back with wins at Mississippi State and LSU last week despite battling injury and illness.
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Senior guards Santiago Vescovi (shoulder) and Tyreke Key (illness) didn’t play against Mississippi State. Zakai Zeigler scored a career-high 24 points and freshman wing Julian Phillips had 18 points and 11 rebounds to help rally Tennessee from down nine points in the first half.
Senior center Uros Plavsic didn’t play at LSU due to illness, while both Vescovi and Key returned. Vescovi scored six points and Key had 10 points and a season-high seven rebounds. Senior Josiah-Jordan James scored a season-high 22 points.
Vols to host College GameDay for third time
Tennessee will host ESPN’s College GameDay on Saturday morning, before the Tennessee-Texas game. The pregame show airs live on ESPN from 11 a.m. to Noon Eastern Time
Fans can begin lining up to be part of the live audience for the show at 7 a.m. ET Saturday. Tennessee students will line up at the student gate while general fans will enter at Gate D. Both gates open at 9:30 a.m.
Tickets to the game are not required to get into the arena to be part of the show’s audience. Free parking is available in the G10 garage, but vehicles must clear the garage by 1 p.m. ET, with digital parking permits required for re-entry.
