Tennessee basketball: Ranking Vols 10 homes wins vs. top 5 Kentucky teams

10. Jan. 24, 2017

Nothing really came of this season. Tennessee basketball finished .500 and failed to qualify for postseason play in Rick Barnes’s second year on the job. However, outside of Robert Hubbs III, he had a very young team and one that had lots of future potential.

At this point in the season, the Vols became a big tease for Rocky Top. This win was part of a solid January and early February run leading many people to believe that they just might sneak into the NCAA Tournament.

Coming off a 91-74 win over the Mississippi State Bulldogs, Tennessee was 10-9 and 3-4 in the SEC. Meanwhile, Kentucky came in ranked No 4 with a 17-2 record overall and 7-0 SEC record. John Calipari’s team was rolling.

Hubbs dropped 25 points, and then Admiral Schofield, Lamonte Turner and Grant Williams all had double-figures. Don’t those names sound familiar? Anyway, there was no special play to win this one. It was just a close match-up throughout, and the Vols pulled away in the end. The key was Grant Williams hitting a bucket with 17 seconds left to put them up by 5.

After this match-up, UT won two more games against the Kansas State Wildcats and at the Auburn Tigers to look red-hot. But then they collapsed in February due to lack of depth, which is why this game didn’t end up meaning anything.