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Tennessee basketball: Scenarios for Vols to win SEC regular season title

By Caleb Calhoun

ST LOUIS, MO - MARCH 10: Rick Barnes the head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers gives instructions to his team against the Arkansas Razorbacks during the semifinals of the 2018 SEC Basketball Tournament at Scottrade Center on March 10, 2018 in St Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
ST LOUIS, MO - MARCH 10: Rick Barnes the head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers gives instructions to his team against the Arkansas Razorbacks during the semifinals of the 2018 SEC Basketball Tournament at Scottrade Center on March 10, 2018 in St Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images
Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images /

1. Vols win out

Tennessee basketball has a brutal stretch to close out the season, but they still could win out. Their most likely win is against the Mississippi State Bulldogs at home. Should they lose that, there will be problems.

But the Kentucky Wildcats at home and Ole Miss Rebels and Auburn Tigers on the road are all toss-up games. UK is a bit banged up, so them playing in Knoxville favors the Vols, giving them a very strong likelihood at two given wins. And they are better than both the Rebels and the Tigers, so you could definitely seem them winning both games.

Should this happen, the Vols will finish the season 28-3 and 16-2 in the SEC. But they’ll still need some help to win the SEC regular season championship outright and get the top seed. That’s where this next part comes in.

-LSU loses one game

Naturally, winning out would mean beating the Kentucky Wildcats, so they would have three conference losses while UT only has two. UK is then eliminated. However, the same isn’t true for the LSU Tigers.

LSU has the head to head over UT because of their win last Saturday. So if the Vols want the No. 1 seed after winning out, they still have to hope the Tigers lose a game. Fortunately for them, LSU has back to back road games against the Alabama Crimson Tide and Florida Gators.

If Rick Barnes’s team can win out, you have to think LSU will lose one of those games, especially since they’re currently a bit banged up. Florida just beat them in Baton Rouge. Their other two games are the Texas A&M Aggies and Vanderbilt Commodores at home, likely wins, but combine those with the two road games and a loss has to come from somewhere.

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