Tennessee basketball: Vols getting robbed without unanimous No. 1 ranking

Tennessee basketball remained No. 1 on Monday in both polls, but it wasn’t unanimous. Here’s why that’s unfair to the Volunteers.

For the first time in school history, Tennessee basketball enjoyed a No. 1 ranking for back to back weeks. That’s something to celebrate, especially when the Vols and Rick Barnes each have only had one season in which they’ve ever reached a No. 1 ranking.

But considering the fact that the Vols are 18-1, on a 14-game winning streak and haven’t lost since Thanksgiving week, it’s pretty obvious they belong there. Their only loss is in double-overtime to the Kansas Jayhawks with Lamonte Turner not at 100 percent, and they beat the Gonzaga Bulldogs when they were No. 1 and the Louisville Cardinals, who are now No. 15.

With a top 30 strength of schedule, I don’t have to sell anybody on why the Vols deserve to be No. 1. However, Tennessee basketball is getting robbed from its first unanimous No. 1 ranking in school history.

In the USA TODAY Coaches Poll, the Duke Blue Devils are getting a first place vote, and in the AP Poll, Duke has 12 first place votes while UVA has four. This is a blatant travesty considering the resumes of the teams.

Even if you don’t think the Vols are the best team right now, these rankings are about the resumes. It would fair to say that Duke’s strength of schedule, which is No. 6 in the RPI,  puts them over UT since that one is No. 32 in the RPI. Add in the fact that Duke has more quality wins than the Vols, and it makes even more sense.

However, that logic goes out the window when you look at the fact that Duke and Tennessee had a common opponent: Gonzaga. The Bulldogs beat the Blue Devils, while the Vols beat them out west. Add in the fact that Duke has a loss at home to an unranked team, and there is no metric in which you could reasonably put them over Rocky Top.

Virginia is worse. They have the same record as the Vols, and their schedule strength is 22 spots lower. So there is no way you could sell UVA being ahead of Tennessee basketball when there is no common opponent facto that favors the Cavs.

It should be noted, however, that the numbers were worse last week. And at that time, the Michigan State Spartans had a pair of first place votes despite having two losses, one by a larger margin to the one team to beat the Vols in Kansas and the other to Louisville, a team the Vols beat. They lost those votes after losing their third game of the year over the weekend, this time to the Purdue Boilermakers.

But it still doesn’t excuse the Vols not being a unanimous No. 1. Yes, they had a couple of very lucky wins over the Alabama Crimson Tide and Vanderbilt Commodores. However, after destroying the West Virginia Mountaineers, who were a week removed from upsetting Kansas, they deserved their respect.

It’s clear that Tennessee basketball is not a team that is supposed to be No. 1, and a few voters feel that way. As a result, they are going to heavily try to favor Duke, and they want to be able to favor other teams. But the Vols have a chance to keep winning and establishing their legitimacy. Should they keep it up, they could be unanimous at the top very soon.