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Tennessee basketball: Comparing Vols to last Rick Barnes team that reached No. 1

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - DECEMBER 22: Head coach Rick Barnes of the Tennessee Volunteers reacts to a play during the first half of the game against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons at Thompson-Boling Arena on December 22, 2018 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Donald Page/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - DECEMBER 22: Head coach Rick Barnes of the Tennessee Volunteers reacts to a play during the first half of the game against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons at Thompson-Boling Arena on December 22, 2018 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Donald Page/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images /

1. How far did the 2009-2010 Texas Longhorns go?

This is the scary part for Tennessee basketball. After reaching No. 1 on Jan. 11, Texas held it for two weeks. They won their first two games against the Iowa State Cyclones on the road and the Texas A&M Aggies. Then they collapsed.

Texas finished the season 7-10 and lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to the Wake Forest Demon Deacons by a point in overtime. It started after losing to the No. 10 ranked Kansas State Wildcats on the road, followed by a road loss to the UConn Huskies.

A week later, they lost at home to the No. 24 ranked Baylor Bears. After losing to the Oklahoma Sooners on the road another week later, they fell out of the Top 10 at 19-4. Then they lost to the No. 1 ranked Kansas Jayhawks and at the Missouri Tigers a week later. That dropped them out of the Top 20.

Finally, losing two of their final three at Texas A&M and at Baylor ended their regular season at 23-8, 9-7 in the Big 12 and out of the Top 25. They lost a third game on the year to Baylor in the second game of the Big 12 Tournament before reaching the Big Dance.

By that point, what was once a No. 1 team had fallen to an unranked No.  8 seed. The Longhorns, like this year’s Vols, started the year with high expectations. In fact, they were ranked No. 3 in the preseason and took forever to get to that No. 1 spot. But as elusive as it was, it went away far too quickly.

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