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SEC Tournament Gives Tennessee Vols Rare Opportunity to Get Back on the Bubble

By Caleb Calhoun

Mar 1, 2017; Baton Rouge, LA, USA; Tennessee Volunteers head coach Rick Barnes (middle) looks on during a time out during the first half at Pete Maravich Assembly Center. LSU Tigers defeat the Tennessee Volunteers 92-82. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 1, 2017; Baton Rouge, LA, USA; Tennessee Volunteers head coach Rick Barnes (middle) looks on during a time out during the first half at Pete Maravich Assembly Center. LSU Tigers defeat the Tennessee Volunteers 92-82. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports /
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Tennessee Basketball’s seeding in the 2017 Men’s SEC Tournament gives the Volunteers a rare chance to get back on the NCAA postseason bubble.

Right now, the Tennessee Vols are just fighting to get a chance to play in the NIT. But despite their three-game losing streak near the end of the season and their awful losses, the NCAA Tournament is not out of reach just yet. And they likely don’t have to win the SEC Tournament to get there.

Rick Barnes’s team is coming off of a critical victory over the Alabama Crimson Tide to close the season, and it’s a game that should give them some confidence.

Currently, they have the No. 75 ranked RPI with the No. 21 ranked strength of schedule. Playing the Missouri Tigers and LSU Tigers down the stretch killed their strength of schedule.

Losing to LSU only hurt their rating even worse.

However, with the unveiling of the SEC Tournament bracket, the Vols’ No. 9 seeding is perfect for them. They face the Georgia Bulldogs right out of the gate in the first round.

The No. 53 ranked team in the RPI, Georgia is 17-13 and on the NCAA Tournament bubble as well. So Tennessee has an immediate chance to knock off a team that’s on the bubble, a team that beat them earlier in the year.

Then comes the big one.

Right after that, the Vols would play the Kentucky Wildcats if they beat Georgia.

Tennessee has already shown once it can beat John Calipari’s team, and the Wildcats are very inconsistent. So if the bad version of the Wildcats shows up, the Vols have an amazing chance to steal a victory.

If they just get lucky and steal two victories, that is two more quality wins. And it will boost their strength of schedule.

All of a sudden, this is an 18-15 team with a strength of schedule that likely moves back into the Top 10.

Is it beyond the realm of possibility to believe that they could shoot up in the RPI after that and be back on the bubble?

No.

Then, depending on who they would play Saturday, they could either see their schedule strength shoot up even further or get a winnable game that allows them to play Sunday.

This Tennessee basketball team is one of the most inconsistent teams in school history, so it’s not crazy to believe that they could sneak their way onto the bubble with a run in the SEC Tournament.

They made a run last year and almost got to Saturday before suffering a heartbreaking loss on Friday.

This year, a decent run could do much more for them. But it will obviously be extremely difficult.

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