Joe Lunardi moves Tennessee up to a No. 1 seed in latest ESPN Bracketology update
Tennessee basketball officially moved up to the No. 1-seed line in the latest NCAA Tournament projection from ESPN’s Joe Lunardi. The Vols grabbed the fourth and final No. 1 seed after the 88-68 win over LSU on Wednesday night at Thompson-Boling Arena.
Tennessee (17-5, 7-2 SEC) jumped past Arizona, which had been the No. 4 overall seed in Lunardi’s seed list update Wednesday night. Purdue, UConn and Houston are the other No. 1 seeds, respectively, in Lunardi’s Bracketology update.
Tennessee has never been a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, but have been a No. 5 seed or higher in all five NCAA Tournament appearances under Rick Barnes. The Vols were a No. 4 seed a year ago, a No. 3 seed in 2022 and a No. 5 seed in 2021. They were a No. 2 seed in 2019 and a No. 3 in 2018.
Up Next: No. 6 Tennessee at Texas A&M, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN
On Wednesday Tennessee was the highest of eight SEC teams that Lunardi had in his projection for the 68-team field. Alabama was a No. 3 seed and No. 10 overall on the seed list before losing at Auburn.
Auburn is a No. 4 seed, Kentucky is a No. 5 and South Carolina is a No. 6. Ole Miss, Texas A&M and Florida are all No. 10 seeds, at No. 38, No. 39 and No. 40 on Lunardi’s seed list. Mississippi State is in the “Last Four In” category at No. 41 overall and Georgia is still in the “considered” category as the No. 88 overall seed.
After the win over LSU, Tennessee is back on the road for two games away from home, starting at Texas A&M (14-8, 5-4) on Saturday night (8 Eastern Time, ESPN). The Vols go to Arkansas (11-11, 2-7) on Tuesday night (9 p.m. ET, ESPN2).
Lunardi wrote Wednesday evening that Tennessee could move to the No. 1-seed line in his latest NCAA Tournament projection by blowing out LSU later Wednesday night in Knoxville.
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Tennessee in recent weeks had been either the No. 5 or No. 6 overall seed in Lunardi’s projections, dropping to No. 6 after the loss to South Carolina last week then moving back up to No. 5 after the win at Kentucky.
Vols ‘firmly’ made their case for a No. 1 seed with the win at Kentucky Saturday night
After the 103-92 win over then-No. 10 Kentucky Saturday night at Rupp Arena, Lunardi wrote that Tennessee had “firmly” made its case for a No. 1 seed but that North Carolina and Houston were still standing in the way.
The Tar Heels won the head-to-head matchup with the Vols, 100-92 in the ACC-SEC Challenge game at the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill on November 29, and Houston started the week with six Quad 1 wins and a No. 1 ranking in the NET.
North Carolina lost at home to Clemson on Tuesday, giving the Tar Heels two losses in their last three games. They lost at Georgia Tech on January 30 before answer with a win over Rival Duke at home on Saturday.
“Tennessee firmly made its case for a No. 1 seed by racing past Kentucky at Rupp Arena,” Lunardi wrote over the weekend. “The Vols’ wire-to-wire victory certainly passed any possible ‘eye test,’ giving us five teams with legitimate to-line profiles.”
