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Tennessee basketball moves up in Associated Press Top 25

IMG_3593by:Grant Ramey•01/23/23•

GrantRamey

Colin Coyne
Tennessee walk-on Colin Coyne celebrates after a win at Mississippi State (Tennessee Athletics)

Tennessee basketball moved up five spots and is now ranked No. 4 in this week’s updated Associated Press Top 25. The Vols picked up a pair of road wins last week and moved up in the poll after Houston, Kansas, UCLA, Gonzaga and Xavier, all teams ranked ahead of Tennessee a week ago, lost last week.

Purdue returned to No. 1, ahead of No. 2 Alabama and No. 3 Houston. Kansas State jumped up eight spots to No. 5, Arizona is now at No. 6 and Virginia is at No. 7. Texas dropped three spots to No. 10.

After wins at Mississippi State and LSU last week, Tennessee (16-3, 6-1 SEC) is back home for two games this week, hosting Georgia on Wednesday (7 p.m. Eastern Time; TV: SEC Network) and Texas on Saturday (6 p.m. ET; ESPN). 

Tennessee won 70-59 at Mississippi State on Tuesday, taking care of business at Humphrey Coliseum despite missing senior guards Santiago Vescovi (shoulder) and Tyreke Key (illness). On Saturday it was a 77-56 rout at LSU despite missing senior center Uros Plavsic (illness), winning for the at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge for the first time since 2015.

Up Next: No. 4 Tennessee vs. Georgia, Wednesday, 7 p.m. ET, SEC Network

Sophomore point guard Zakai Zeigler played the full 40 minutes at Mississippi State, scoring a career-high 24 points on 7-for-14 shooting from the field. He had 16 points in the second half, going 4-for-4 from the 3-point line.

Freshman wing Julian Phillips at 18 points and 11 rebounds in the win in Starkville, with 13 points and seven rebounds in the second half. Josiah-Jordan James scored 13 points and Olivier Nkamhoua had seven points and nine rebounds.

James scored a season-high 22 points, to go with seven rebounds and an assist, at LSU on Saturday. Zeigler had his second double-double of the season with 12 points and 10 assists and Key and Phillips scored 10 points each. 

Georgia has lost two straight games and three out of its last five under new head coach Mike White, who left Florida to take over the Bulldogs during the offseason.

KenPom.com has Georgia at No. 92 overall in its ratings, with the No. 80 defense and No. 116 offense. Tennessee remains at No. 2 overall per KenPom, carrying the No. 1 defense in college basketball for the last seven weeks. The offense is up to No. 31 overall after the win at LSU.

Vols to host ESPN’s College GameDay on Saturday

Tennessee will host ESPN’s College GameDay on Saturday, before the Vols take on Texas inside a sold-out Thompson-Boling Arena in the Big 12-SEC Challenge. 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.

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