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Tennessee basketball: Vols ranked, but still too low in Top 25

By Caleb Calhoun

NASHVILLE, TN - MARCH 10: Rick Barnes the head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers gives instructions to his team during the 67-65 win over the Vanderbilt Commodores during the second round of the SEC Basketball Tournament at Bridgestone Arena on March 10, 2016 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
NASHVILLE, TN - MARCH 10: Rick Barnes the head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers gives instructions to his team during the 67-65 win over the Vanderbilt Commodores during the second round of the SEC Basketball Tournament at Bridgestone Arena on March 10, 2016 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
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Tennessee basketball entered the AP Top 25 rankings Monday at No. 24. Although it’s good news, the Volunteers should be much higher in the polls.

A 77-70 win over the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Sunday night was not the most glamorous win for Tennessee basketball. But it was one of the defining wins of the season.

Rick Barnes’s team looked ugly as Josh Pastner mixed up his defense. GT would not go away. And that’s a Power Five team they played on the road.

So to find a way to win was huge. And with a 6-1 record, the Vols earned their way into the Top 25 for the first time since the Bruce Pearl days of men’s basketball on Rocky Top. Tennessee basketball was unranked in the Coaches Poll.

But they came in at No. 24 in the AP Poll. With all the turmoil happening related to the coaching search, Vol Nation is rightfully excited about this ranking. However, they should be angry.

Tennessee basketball’s ranking is far too low given their resume. If you look at what they’ve done so far, they should be flirting with the Top 15.

The Vols’ only loss is by single digits to the Villanova Wildcats on a neutral court. In case you’ve missed it, Villanova is 8-0 right now and ranked No. 4 in the country.

Meanwhile, Tennessee has three wins against Power Five schools. And all of them are away from home. One of them is against the Purdue Boilermakers.

And, in the most egregious way, Purdue is ranked ahead of them in both polls. Now, Purdue has two losses, to Tennessee basketball and then to the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers. Although they have beaten four Power Five teams in a row, they should still be behind Tennessee.

In fact, Purdue is one of many teams ahead of the Vols with a worse resume. Just look at the other SEC teams first.

The Texas A&M Aggies are the only one with a better resume than Tennessee basketball. The Vols have more quality wins than the Florida Gators or Kentucky Wildcats.

Staying in the Top 10, let’s compare them to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Notre Dame has one Power Five win to Tennessee’s three, but we’ll give them two since they also beat Wichita State. However, their one loss, to the Michigan State Spartans, is the equivalent of Tennessee’s loss to Villanova. Except the Irish lost that game by 18.

So the Vols have a better resume than Notre Dame.

Another team ahead of them in both polls is the Minnesota Golden Gophers, who only have two Power Five wins and a loss to the Miami Hurricanes. Again, Tennessee basketball’s resume is better.

Then you have the Cincinnati Bearcats and West Virginia Mountaineers, who have combined to beat one Power Five school.

Finally, the Baylor Bears are ahead of them in both polls despite two losses and only one win over a major program. How does that work?

In case you missed it, I just named eight teams that have a clearly worse resume than Tennessee basketball but are somehow ranked ahead of them in the AP Poll. Even more egregious, the Vols are four spots outside of the Coaches Poll.

Ahead of them are the two-loss USC Trojans and Louisville Cardinals along with the Texas Tech Red Raiders, who have fewer Power Five wins and a worse loss than the Vols.

At the very worst, Tennessee basketball should be No. 17 in both polls. And that’s just if they’re ahead of everybody with clearly worse resumes than them. They are in league with a bunch of other teams and could be flirting with the Top 10.

But for some reason, the same way they garnered no respect at the beginning of the year when they were picked 13th in the SEC, nobody is paying attention to what Barnes has brewing in Knoxville. And it just might be enough to take the SEC by firestorm.

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