All for Tennessee
Fansided

Tennessee Lady Vols back in all NCAA Tournament bracketology predictions

By Caleb Calhoun

CLEVELAND - APRIL 01: Fans of the Tennessee Lady Volunteers support their tema against the North Carolina Tar Heels during their National Semifinal game of the 2007 NCAA Women's Final Four at the Quicken Loans Arena on April 1, 2007 in Cleveland, Ohio. Tennessee won 56-50. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
CLEVELAND - APRIL 01: Fans of the Tennessee Lady Volunteers support their tema against the North Carolina Tar Heels during their National Semifinal game of the 2007 NCAA Women's Final Four at the Quicken Loans Arena on April 1, 2007 in Cleveland, Ohio. Tennessee won 56-50. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images) /
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Five wins in six games got the Tennessee Lady Vols back in all NCAA Tournament projections. The women’s basketball Volunteers are as high as a 9-seed.

Last week, they were on the outside looking in with some NCAA Tournament brackets. But the Tennessee Lady Vols are now at least still holding onto a spot in all bracketology predictions thanks to their best week of conference play.

Holly Warlick’s team completed a sweep of the Auburn Tigers last Thursday before stealing a two-point win Sunday at the Missouri Tigers. Mizzou had just beaten the No. 5 ranked Mississippi State Bulldogs on the road and started Tennessee’s six-game losing streak back in January with a win in Knoxville. So that was a huge win.

Clearly, the bracketology experts took that into account. Charlie Creme of ESPN went from the Lady Vols being among his first four teams out to being a No. 9 seed in his predictions. His bracket had them facing the No. 8 seed North Carolina Tar Heels in the first round with their first weekend in a bracket hosted by the No. 1 seed Baylor Bears, who would open against No. 16 seed Southern.

Other sites had them in last week so just didn’t change much. College Sports Madness kept UT right at a No. 9 seed facing South Dakota in the first round with the first weekend being played in Eugene as the No. 1 seed Oregon Ducks play host with No. 16 seed Southern in there.

Then there’s fellow FanSided website High Post Hoops, which kept Tennessee as a No. 11 seed and one of the last four in. Now, though, they would be facing the No. 6 seed Michigan State Spartans in the first round in a first weekend bracket hosted by the No. 3 seed Miami Hurricanes, who would face No. 14 seed VCU in the first round. Baylor would be the top seed in this bracket.

After beating Mizzou, the Tennessee Lady Vols already did what they needed to do in their four-game stretch against Auburn, Missouri, and the upcoming games at the Texas A&M Aggies and at home against the South Carolina Gamecocks by winning two of them. However, to continue to climb the ladder, they could use another victory. Their final two games against the Vanderbilt Commodores and Ole Miss Rebels will do very little for them.

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Right now, Tennessee is No. 42 in the RPI, a gigantic jump after its win over Mizzou. They are currently 17-8 and back to .500 in the SEC at 6-6 with the No. 33 ranked strength of schedule. So the next two games give them more chances to shoot up, but with four games left, they are by no means completely in the clear of the NCAA Tournament bubble yet.