Tennessee basketball: Looking at last 5 seasons Vols were in top 5

1. 1958-1959

14-8 (8-6 in SEC)

Highest ranking: No. 5

This was Tennessee basketball’s last season under head coach Emmett Lowery, who was the first long-term head coach the program ever had that was specifically for basketball. Anyway, his team was led by seniors Gene Tormohlen and Kenny Coulter.

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Adding in junior forward Dalen Showalter to this inside-out game they had, and there was plenty of reason to be excited about a squad that had gone 16-7 the year before. Starting the year ranked No. 6 in the nation, expectations were sky-high early.

Then four games into the season, the Vols were undefeated. They had beaten the Wyoming Cowboys twice, scored a huge win over the Michigan Wolverines, and also had a solid win over the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.

At that point, they reached their first top 5 ranking in program history, right at No. 5. Two days later, they beat the Davidson Wildcats, and this team seemed to be legit. However, it was all just an illusion.

A 15-point loss to the Butler Bulldogs on the road knocked these guys out of the Top 10. Two games later, they lost a close one at home to the No. 5 ranked West Virginia Mountaineers. Still, they were in the Top 20 when they opened SEC play with a win over the Vanderbilt Commodores.

After that, it all went south. The Vols lost two of four road games and fell out of the rankings altogether. They stumbled to a barely .500 record in the conference. A home win over the No. 2 ranked Auburn Tigers in the second to last game of the season was exciting. But it didn’t offset a sweep at the hands of the Kentucky Wildcats, a 3-6 record on the road and a 1-4 record against ranked teams. So, in the end, this season ended in a disappointment.