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Tennessee basketball: Ranking Vols by importance in NCAA Tournament

By Caleb Calhoun

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE - MARCH 16: Jordan Bone #0 of the Tennessee Volunteers celebrates during the 82-78 win over the Kentucky Wildcats during the semifinals of the SEC Basketball Tournament at Bridgestone Arena on March 16, 2019 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE - MARCH 16: Jordan Bone #0 of the Tennessee Volunteers celebrates during the 82-78 win over the Kentucky Wildcats during the semifinals of the SEC Basketball Tournament at Bridgestone Arena on March 16, 2019 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images /

Tennessee basketball will need all its key players to step up in the NCAA Tournament. But here are the tiers of importance for the Volunteers.

After 34 games this year and 29 wins, it’s clear where which players Tennessee basketball most desperately needs to step up in this year’s NCAA Tournament. We don’t only have data from the Vols’ season this year to see that either.

Last year’s two NCAA Tournament games give us some data as well, particularly with a key injury that took place and may have kept the Vols from reaching the Final Four. So as they begin this year’s Big Dance against Colgate on Friday, we know who needs to step up.

Tennessee basketball’s only notable NCAA Tournament performer over a period of time, surprisingly, is J.P. Prince. A defensive specialist, Prince scored double-figures in all four tournament games in 2010, the only time the Vols ever got to the Elite Eight.

But most of their history is made up of quick flameouts, including two first-round exits under Bruce Pearl and Jerry Green each, second-round exits as a No. 2 seed in 2006 and No. 3 seed last year and no Final Four appearances. So there’s not a deep collection of players who just turned it on in the NCAA Tournament throughout the Vols’ history.

In this post, we’re going to look at who needs to do that for them this year. We are going to rank every single player by their importance to the team in the NCAA Tournament based on what we’ve seen all season and what we saw in last year’s tourney.

This ranking will separate the players into five tiers. Most of you know which players are geared toward the top, but the rankings themselves may come as a bit of a shock. Rick Barnes didn’t run as deep as he probably wanted to this year, though, so this separation is actually easier, if it’s bad for the Vols overall.

Anyway, let’s go ahead and break down what we’re talking about. This is our ranking of all 14 Tennessee basketball players who saw action this year by importance and separated into five tiers in the 2019 NCAA Tournament.

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