What you may have missed during the first two months of No. 1 Tennessee's basketball season

Tennessee Football’s season came crashing down in the 42-17 loss to Ohio State in the first round of the 12-team College Football Playoff Saturday night at Ohio Stadium in Columbus. That’s the bad news.

The good news: It’s time to transition to Tennessee Basketball, the current No. 1 team in the country.

Here’s what you might have missed with the Vols nearly two months into the regular-season schedule:

Tennessee is ranked No. 1

Tennessee has been ranked No. 1 for the last two weeks and is atop the polls for just the third time in program history. The Vols were ranked No. 1 for a week in February 2008 and for four weeks in February 2019. 

Two weeks ago Tennessee moved up from No. 3 to No. 1 after four teams in the AP Top 25 lost. The Vols stayed at No. 1 on Monday, but lost ground to Auburn in first-place votes in both the AP Top 25 and the Coaches Poll.

Tennessee is currently ranked No. 2 in the NET and No. 3 overall in the KenPom.com ratings.

The Vols are chasing the best start in program history

Tennessee’s perfect 11-0 start is the best start since the 1999-2000 team also won 11 straight games to start the season. 

The Vols need to win three more in a row to match program record, which is currently held by the 1922-23 team’s 14-0 record in a 17-game season. That team’s wins included Camp Benning, Maryville, Tusculum, Milligan, Georgetown (Ky.), Centre, Transylvania, Centenary and Emory & Henry.

A win over MTSU on Monday would match the 1915-16 team’s perfect 12-0 record in a 12-game season, which included wins over Johnson Bible College, Chattanooga, Cumberland, Murphy College in Sevierville, Emory & Henry and Centre.

Chaz Lanier has lived up to the hype

Dalton Knecht was never going to be replaced. But Chaz Lanier picked Tennessee over Kentucky and BYU as one of the biggest names in the NCAA Transfer Portal after being the most efficient scorer in college basketball last season … and he has very much looked the part.

Lanier is averaging 18.9 points per game on 45.4% shooting from the field and 47.1% from the 3-point line, on 85 attempts. He has scored 17 or more points in all but two games this season and scored a season-high 26 against both Virginia and Syracuse.

He has hit four 3-pointers in six of 11 games, including seven against Baylor and six against Virginia in back-to-back games in The Bahamas. 

Igor Milicic gives the Vols versatility 

Igor Milicic is Tennessee’s leading rebounder at 7.7 per game and is third in scoring, averaging 11.5 points. He’s second in assists (23) and blocks (9) and also has seven steals. 

The 6-foot-10 forward and Charlotte transfer can bring the ball up the floor as a point forward, play on the wing as a three, play a stretch four and has also gotten his share of minutes as a small-ball center.

Tennessee’s coaching staff thought Milicic was an underrated addition in the spring and he has proven to be very valuable through the first third of the season. 

Jordan Gainey and Cade Phillips are different players 

Jordan Gainey scored 18 of his 23 points in the second half in the 66-64 win at Illinois last Saturday, including going coast-to-coast in the final 5.7 seconds and scoring the game-winning layup as time expired. 

He played 18 minutes in the second half without committing a turnover, running point guard in place of Zakai Zeigler and scoring in place of Chaz Lanier, with both players limited by foul trouble. 

Both Gainey and sophomore forward Cade Phillips have looked like different players this season. Gainey is the second-leading scorer at 12.1 points per game and is shooting 51.2% from the field and 40.5% from the 3-point line. 

Phillips is averaging 6.8 points and 4.6 rebounds in 17.6 minutes off the bench through 11 games. He played in just 13 games last season, averaging only 0.9 points and 1.4 rebounds in 6.0 minutes.

Cam Carr and JP Estrella are injured 

Sophomore forward JP Estrella is out for the season due to a foot injury after undergoing surgery three weeks ago. Tennessee is also currently missing sophomore wing Cam Carr, who had surgery to address a thumb ligament injury in late November.

Tennessee entered the season with 11 scholarship players (out of a possible 13) and at times this season has been down to nine with both freshman guard Bishop Boswell and Hofstra transfer wing Darlinstone Dubar missing time.

Carr had the cast removed from his thumb last week and has started shooting more during individual work in practice. He’ll be an important addition to the rotation when he’s healthy enough to return. 

Tennessee found what it needed in the NCAA Transfer Portal

Between Chaz Lanier, Igor Milicic and center Felix Okpara, Tennessee found three starters in the NCAA Transfer Portal, with all three averaging 24.9 minutes per game or more. Darlinstone Dubar has shown flashes off the bench, too, including five points, five rebounds and a block at Illinois last Saturday and 13 points against Western Carolina on Tuesday. 

After losing four players to the portal last spring, including forwards Jonas Aidoo and Tobe Awaka, Rick Barnes went to the portal himself and added difference makers all over the floor. 

Zakai is still Zakai 

Zakai Zeigler’s senior season hasn’t looked all that different than his first three years with the Vols. He’s fifth nationally and leads the SEC with 7.6 assists per game, while averaging 11.4 points and 3.7 rebounds per game.

He missed a triple-double by one assist — it would’ve been just the second in program history — with 10 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists against Western Carolina on Tuesday. 

Zeigler has been uber productive despite struggling with his shot through 11 games, shooting 38.2% from the field and 29.7% from the 3-point line.

The schedule is about to get intense

The metrics love Tennessee on both ends of the floor, but the Vols are rated No. 127 in KenPom strength of schedule and No. 134 in non-conference strength of schedule. It doesn’t help that three of the five big-name opponents so far — Virginia, Syracuse and Miami — have been below their own standards.

The best win was last week at Illinois, just ahead of the win over Baylor in the Baha Mar Championship game in November. 

That changes on January 4 when SEC play starts against Arkansas at Food City Center. ESPN currently projects an eye-popping 13 teams SEC teams to make the NCAA Tournament and 15 of the 16 SEC teams are ranked No. 57 or higher in the NET, making the league schedule loaded with Quad 1 opportunities.

Of note: Tennessee goes to Florida on January 7, to Texas on January 11, to Auburn on January 25, hosts Kentucky on January 28, goes to Kentucky on February 11 and hosts Alabama on March 1.

The Rick Barnes Standard is the standard

Tennessee has finished in the top five in KenPom adjusted defensive efficiency the last four seasons — No. 3 last season, No. 1 in 2022-23, No. 3 in 2021-22 and No. 5 in 2020-21 — and the Vols are currently ranked No. 2 through 11 games, thanks to Zakai Zeigler and Jahmai Mashack being two of the best defenders in the country.

Tennessee in the last few seasons has also won an SEC regular-season championship (last season), an SEC Tournament title (2022) and been to an Elite Eight and made back-to-back trips to the Sweet 16.

This season the standard appears to be no different. The Vols are elite on defense, very much above average on offense (No. 15 in KenPom adjusted offensive efficiency and is positioning itself again to be a title contender in the SEC and a second-weekend team in the NCAA Tournament.