Where Tennessee basketball is ranked after the wins over Auburn, Alabama
Tennessee basketball stayed at No. 4 in both the Associated Press Top 25 and the USA Today Coaches Poll on Monday afternoon, following the wins over Auburn and Alabama last week. Houston, UConn and Purdue remain the top-three teams in both polls.
It’s only the third time in program history Tennessee has been ranked in the top five three weeks in a row and the 25th time the Vols have been ranked in the top five under Rick Barnes, after doing so only 17 times before Barnes arrived.
Tennessee has been ranked in the top five for seven weeks this season, tied for second most in a season in program history. It’s the 12th straight week the Vols have been ranked in the top ten, tied for the third-longest streak in program history.
The Vols (23-6, 13-3 SEC), who beat Auburn 92-84 on Wednesday and won 81-74 at Alabama Saturday night, now go to South Carolina (24-5, 12-4) on Wednesday (7 p.m. Eastern Time, ESPN2) and can clinch at least a share of the SEC’s regular-season championship with a win.
Tennessee hosts Kentucky on Saturday on Senior Day at Thompson-Boling Arena, a 4 p.m. ET start on CBS.
South Carolina, which beat the Vols 63-59 in Knoxville on January 30, is second in the SEC standings and is one game back of the Vols. Alabama is also 12-4 and a game back, while Auburn and Kentucky are tied with 11-5 records, two games back of first.
Tennessee needs one win this week to clinch SEC regular-season championship
Potential still exists for as much as a five-way tie for the regular-season championship depending on this week’s results.
South Carolina hosts Tennessee, then goes to Mississippi State Saturday. Alabama goes to Florida on Tuesday, then hosts Arkansas. Auburn goes to Missouri and has a home game with Georgia. Kentucky hosts Vanderbilt Wednesday before Saturday’s game at Tennessee.
While SEC regular-season titles are shared in the event of the same league records, SEC Tournament seeding is determined by comparing records against other SEC teams, starting at the top of the standings and working down.
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Tennessee with the win at Alabama cliched a double-bye into the SEC Tournament quarterfinals as one of the top-four finishers in the league.
Where the Vols stand in Bracketology, NET, KenPom
Tennessee is showing up as both a No. 1 seed and a No. 2 seed in NCAA Tournament bracket projections.
CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm on Sunday moved Tennessee to a No. 1 seed in his latest bracket projections, with the Vols as the fourth No. 1 seed and sent to the West Region, ahead of No. 2-seed Arizona.
ESPN’s Joe Lunardi wrote on Saturday, before Tennessee’s win at Alabama, that the Vols still wouldn’t move up to the top-seed line even with a road win over the Crimson Tide
Tennessee is No. 5 overall in the NET rankings with a 6-5 record in Quad 1 games. The Vols are 6-1 in Quad 2, 6-0 in Quad 3 and 5-0 in Quad 4.
Arizona is the team that would have to lose for Tennessee to move up. The NET has the Wildcats at No. 3 overall with an 8-3 in Quad 1 games. They also have two Quad 2 losses (at Stanford and home vs. Washington State) and one Quad 3 loss (at Oregon State).
