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Tennessee Basketball: Vols Jump 10 Spots in RPI Ranking to No. 52 After Beating Kentucky

By Caleb Calhoun

Jan 24, 2017; Knoxville, TN, USA; Kentucky Wildcats guard Malik Monk (5) shoots the ball over Tennessee Volunteers guard Jordan Bowden (23) at Thompson-Boling Arena. Tennessee defeated Kentucky 82-80. Mandatory Credit: Bryan Lynn-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 24, 2017; Knoxville, TN, USA; Kentucky Wildcats guard Malik Monk (5) shoots the ball over Tennessee Volunteers guard Jordan Bowden (23) at Thompson-Boling Arena. Tennessee defeated Kentucky 82-80. Mandatory Credit: Bryan Lynn-USA TODAY Sports /
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Tennessee basketball jumped up to No. 52 in the Ratings Percentage Index Wednesday after the Volunteers’ 82-80 win over the Kentucky Wildcats Tuesday night.

Make no mistake, Tennessee basketball has played its way onto the NCAA Tournament bubble after beating the No. 4 ranked Kentucky Wildcats.

With just an 11-9 record overall and a 4-4 record in the SEC, Rick Barnes’s Vols jumped up to No. 52 in the RPI, according to the RealTime RPI rankings that came out Wednesday morning.

Remember, they are only 10-9 by the RPI’s standards because one of their wins is over a Division II school.

However, given their schedule strength, they have been able to stay relevant and afloat.

Tennessee has the No. 5 ranked strength of schedule overall. They have not yet lost a game to a team outside of the Top 100 of the RPI.

That’s 14 of their 20 games (19 in the RPI) that have been against Top 100 teams.

Taking it a step further, nine of the Vols’ 10 losses have come against Top 50 RPI teams, and six have come against Top 25 RPI teams.

To emphasize how big that Kentucky win was, the Wildcats were the Vols’ third Top 10 RPI opponent. And they are Tennessee’s first win against a Top 50 RPI team, although they have four wins total against Top 100 RPI teams. They also beat the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, Vanderbilt Commodores, and Texas A&M Aggies.

Given that the index factors in quality wins by different levels, that makes this a huge victory in the grand scheme of it.

That’s especially true when you consider that Georgia Tech and Texas A&M are in the 90s of the RPI, so they could easily fall out of the Top 100, and Vanderbilt has a 9-11 record, so they’re only in because of they’re strength of schedule.

Tennessee is now seventh among SEC teams in the RPI, behind the Georgia Bulldogs, Arkansas Razorbacks, Ole Miss Rebels, Florida Gators, South Carolina Gamecocks, and Wildcats.

And with eight of their final 11 games against Top 100 RPI teams, five of which are against Top 50 RPI teams and two of which are against Top 25 RPI teams, the Vols have plenty more chances to score quality wins.

Their schedule strength will continue to climb as well.

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