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What's next for Tennessee Basketball after punching ticket to third straight Sweet 16

IMG_3593by:Grant Ramey•03/23/25•

GrantRamey

Rick Barnes, Tennessee Basketball | Andrew Ferguson, Tennessee Athletics
Rick Barnes, Tennessee Basketball | Andrew Ferguson, Tennessee Athletics

Rick Barnes was so locked in on the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, viewing it simply as a four-team tournament at Rupp Arena in Lexington, that he didn’t even know what was next up after No. 2 Tennessee’s 67-58 win over No. 7 UCLA in the second round. 

“We came here this weekend to get it done,” Barnes told his team in the locker room after the game. “You got it done. Now we got to go back home, get some rest. Got another invitational somewhere. I don’t even know where it is. I haven’t even looked.” 

Barnes was told Indianapolis was the next destination, where the Vols (29-7) will play in the Midwest Region semifinal Friday against either No. 3 Kentucky or No. 6 Illinois at Lucas Oil Stadium.

“Alright,” Barnes said. “Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter where it is. A lot of good things happened, but you know what? We got to keep going. Got to get better.”

Tennessee’s Sweet 16 game time to be announced Sunday night

Kentucky (23-11) and Illinois (22-12) are scheduled for a 5:15 p.m. Eastern Time start Sunday afternoon in Milwaukee. The Wildcats advanced with a 76-57 win over No. 14 Troy in the first round while the Illini beat No. 11 Xavier 86-73.

Friday’s game time and TV information will be announced Sunday night after the conclusion of the remaining second-round games. 

Regardless of Sunday’s Kentucky-Illinois winner, it will be an opponent Tennessee has already faced this season.

The Vols won 66-64 at Illinois on December 14, when Jordan Gainey went coast-to-coast and scored at the buzzer on a contested layup in traffic. 

Gainey scored 23 points off the bench to lead Tennessee in the win and Chaz Lanier scored 17 points before fouling out. 

Kentucky swept the Vols during the regular season, winning 78-73 at Food Cit Center on January 28 and 75-64 at Rupp Arena on February 11. 

No. 1 Houston faces No. 4 Purdue in other Midwest Region semifinal

No. 1 Houston and No. 4 Purdue are in the other Midwest semifinal on Friday, with winners advancing to Sunday’s Elite Eight round. 

Houston is in its sixth straight Sweet 16 while Tennessee is going for a third straight year and four time in seven NCAA Tournament trips under head coach Rick Barnes. 

The Vols went to the Elite Eight before losing to No. 1 Purdue in Detroit in the Midwest Region last season. Tennessee lost to Final Four-bound Florida Atlantic in the 2023 Sweet 16 at Madison Square Garden and lost to No. 3 Purdue in the 2019 Sweet 16 at KFC Yum! Center in Louisville. 

Tennessee went to the Sweet 16 just five times before Barnes, between 1985, when the tournament expanded to 64 teams, and 2014, when the Vols went from the First Four to the Sweet 16 as a No. 11 seed.

“It goes back to leadership with our players,” Barnes said of Tennessee’s third straight Sweet 16 trip. “They deserve all the credit. They want to be coached, they know what we as a coaching staff expect from them every day and they know we’re going to try to be as consistent as we can doing our jobs and we want them to do that. 

“It’s just a great testament to these guys that they really do like each other. They care, and they love our fanbase.”

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