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Where ESPN's Joe Lunardi has Tennessee seeded in latest NCAA Tournament bracket projection

IMG_3593by:Grant Ramey•01/12/23•

GrantRamey

Tennessee Basketball
Pregame at Thompson-Boling Arena (Tennessee Athletics)

Tennessee basketball is currently the No. 6 overall seed in ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi’s latest projection for the 68-team NCAA Tournament field. The Vols are the second team on the No. 2 seed line, behind UConn and ahead of UCLA and Arizona.

Lunardi’s four No. 1 seeds are Kansas, Purdue, Alabama and Houston, in that order. The No. 3 seeds are Texas, Gonzaga, Xavier and Virginia and the No. 4 seeds, rounding out the top 16, are Iowa State, Kansas State, Arkansas and Marquette. 

The latest bracket on ESPN.com from Lunardi, updated on Tuesday, had Tennessee matched up against No. 15-seed Siena in the South Region, opposite of No. 7 Wisconsin and No. 10 New Mexico. 

Vols are No. 2 overall in NET ratings

Tennessee is No. 2 in the NET ratings, the metric the NCAA Tournament selection committee uses to pick the 68 teams in the field. The Vols are 2-1 in Quad 1 games, 4-1 in Quad 2 games, 2-0 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 has Tennessee at No. 2 overall in its ratings. The Vols have had the No. 1 defense in KenPom’s adjusted efficiency, for the last six weeks, giving up 81.6 points per 100 possessions. They’re up to No. 28 in adjusted offensive efficiency, scoring 112.1 points per 100 possessions.

Tennessee (14-2, 4-0 SEC) moved up to No. 5 in the Associated Press Top 25 on Monday, its highest ranking of the season. The Vols host Kentucky (10-6, 1-3) on Saturday (Noon ET; ESPN) at Thompson-Boling Arena.

On Tuesday Tennessee trailed 39-37 at halftime before coming back to beat Vanderbilt 77-68 in Knoxville. Santiago Vescovi and Julian Phillips both finished with 15 points, six rebounds and three assists. Uros Plavsic had 11 points and six rebounds, Tyreke Key and Jonas Aidoo scored eight points each and Zakai Zeigler had seven points, four rebounds and game-high nine assists, giving him 27 assists over his last three games.

Up Next: No. 5 Tennessee vs. Kentucky, Saturday, 12 p.m. ET, ESPN

The Vols are 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 win over Vanderbilt on Tuesday.  

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.

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