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Tennessee Basketball doubles program record with 74 straight weeks ranked in AP Top 25

IMG_3593by:Grant Ramey•about 14 hours•

GrantRamey

Zakai Zeigler, Tennessee Basketball | Tennesseee Athletics
Zakai Zeigler, Tennessee Basketball | Tennesseee Athletics

When the Associated Press released its preseason top 25 for the 2021-22 college basketball season on October 19, 2021, Tennessee came in at No. 18. And the Vols haven’t dropped out of the rankings since. 

Tennessee was ranked No. 5 in the AP Top 25 on Monday, dropping one spot after a home win over Missouri and a road win at Oklahoma last week. It’s the 74th consecutive week the Vols have been ranked in the AP Top 25, doubling the previous program record of 37, set between March 1999 and February 2001. 

The 74-week streak is the third longest in college basketball behind Houston (100) and Kansas (79). No other team has been ranked 55 weeks or more. Kentucky is next at 38 weeks. 

Up Next: No. 5 Tennessee at No. 15 Kentucky, Tuesday

No. 5 Tennessee (20-4, 7-4 SEC) will put its ranking to the test at No. 15 Kentucky (16-7, 5-5) on Tuesday in a 7 p.m. Eastern Time start on ESPN at Rupp Arena in Lexington. 

Tennessee’s ranking run includes 21 weeks in the top five, 44 in the top 10 and a top-15 ranking in 48 of the last 51 AP Polls. 

They’ve been ranked No. 1 twice under Rick Barnes — for four weeks in 2018-19 and five weeks earlier this season — and have been ranked in the top six in six of the past seven seasons. 

The Vols were ranked in the top six only six times in program history — 1958-59, 1967-68, 1969-70, 1999-2000, 2000-01 and 2007-08 — before Barnes arrived. They have been ranked in the top five in five of the last seven seasons after only five teams were ranked there before Barnes.

Tennessee has been ranked in 88 of the last 91 AP Polls, with the only unranked weeks being the final three of the 2020-21 season. 

Tennessee is one of two teams ranked in top five in each of last four seasons

Only eight teams have been ranked in the top 20 each of the last eight seasons: Tennessee, Duke, Gonzaga, Kentucky, Kansas, Michigan State and North Carolina. 

Four teams have been ranked No. 1 in at least two of the last seven seasons: Tennessee, Baylor, Duke, Gonzaga, Houston, Kansas, Purdue and Auburn.

Four teams have been ranked in the top six in each of the last five seasons: Tennessee, Kansas, Houston and Alabama.

Only Tennessee and Kansas have been ranked in the top five each of the last four seasons. 

Tennessee has played 227 games as a ranked team in the AP Poll during the Barnes era. The Vols are 171-56 (.753) as a ranked team, 150-51 (.746) in the AP top 20, 119-38 (.758) I the top 15, 93-29 (.762) in the top 10, 46-13 (.780) in the top five, 25-3 (.893) in the top three and 14-2 (.875( as the No. 1 team.

Tennessee is 34-25 in AP Top 25 matchups under Barnes. The Vols are 26-18 in top-20 games, 17-12 in top-15 games and 8-8 in top-10 matchups.

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