All for Tennessee Men’s Basketball SEC Power Rankings for Feb. 7: Vols Slip a Bit

Although their winning streak ended last Saturday, the Tennessee Vols did not do enough to fall too hard in our SEC Power Rankings for this week. That’s because Rick Barnes’s team is one bad half away from being in the Top Three of our power rankings.

Tennessee basketball followed up its huge wins over the Kentucky Wildcats and Kansas State Wildcats with a dominating Tuesday night victory over the Auburn Tigers on the road.

Then, on Saturday, they built a 19-point lead on the road against a very tough Mississippi State Bulldogs team.

But with their best player battling injuries, they could not hold onto the lead and just barely lost in the end.

A loss on the road like that is not enough to knock this team too far down the pecking order, and at 13-10, they are still firmly in the NCAA Tournament race thanks to their No. 3 ranked strength of schedule, which puts their RPI ranking at No. 37.

This week, they have a great chance to extend on that with two very winnable home games against two quality opponents.These two games are their make or break games, and Rick Barnes’s team needs to win both.

Later in the week, they host the Georgia Bulldogs. But before that, they’ll be looking to get revenge at home against another Top 50 RPI team. That team is next on our list.