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Tennessee Vols 10 biggest stories from January 2019

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 5: The Tennessee Volunteers mascot Smokey runs through the end zone after a score against the Georgia Bulldogs at Neyland Stadium on October 5, 2013 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 5: The Tennessee Volunteers mascot Smokey runs through the end zone after a score against the Georgia Bulldogs at Neyland Stadium on October 5, 2013 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images) /
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1. Men’s basketball reaches No. 1.

Amidst all the huge football news that happened in January, the Tennessee Vols are generating more news for their men’s basketball team right now. And if you know anything about Rocky Top, that’s a huge rarity.

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    • However, they made history. After scoring their fifth win and Rick Barnes’s first win over a No. 1 ranked team in December, they were stuck at No. 3 for weeks. But, as we already mentioned, Grant Williams was setting records, and they were storming through the SEC.

    Then, there was the magical week of all three teams ahead of them in either poll losing. The Duke Blue Devils lost at home to the Syracuse Orange on a Monday. On Saturday, the Michigan Wolverines lost at the Wisconsin Badgers. And after the Vols beat the Alabama Crimson Tide, Duke beat the undefeated Virginia Cavaliers.

    Those three teams losing was enough to get Rocky Top to No. 1 in the second to last week of January. But they had been No. 1 before, as had Rick Barnes with the 2009-2010 Texas Longhorns. However, Barnes’s longest No. 1 ranked streak was two weeks. Tennessee’s was one week, back in 2008.

    After surviving the Vanderbilt Commodores and then blowing out the West Virginia Mountaineers, they held onto that ranking the next week. So Barnes has matched his longest streak, and combining it with his career first of beating a No. 1 ranked team along with Tennessee basketball’s school-first of two straight weeks at No. 1, history is being made here.

    Next. Vols 10 most impressive years after missing a bowl. dark

    Rocky Top closed out January still having not lost, but it’ll take a February win for a first for Barnes and continuing the other firsts by making it three weeks in a row at No. 1. The real goal is what happens in the NCAA Tournament. But this is fun for Tennessee Vols fans to enjoy. So even with a new offensive coordinator hire, this is the biggest story for January.

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