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Tennessee basketball: Vols 5 best seasons without hanging any banners

By Caleb Calhoun

PROVIDENCE, RI - MARCH 18: The bench of the Tennessee Volunteers reacts in the closing minutes in a 62-59 win over the San Diego State Aztecs during the first round of the 2010 NCAA men's basketball tournament at Dunkin' Donuts Center on March 18, 2010 in Providence, Rhode Island. (Jim Rogash/Getty Images)
PROVIDENCE, RI - MARCH 18: The bench of the Tennessee Volunteers reacts in the closing minutes in a 62-59 win over the San Diego State Aztecs during the first round of the 2010 NCAA men's basketball tournament at Dunkin' Donuts Center on March 18, 2010 in Providence, Rhode Island. (Jim Rogash/Getty Images) /
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Tennessee basketball is coming off a great season despite not winning any sort of championship. Here are five memorable Volunteers teams that did that.

After spending four weeks at No. 1, their longest in school history, you would think that Tennessee basketball would have a notable banner to hang following their 2018-2019 campaign. But they walked away with no championships.

That’s the one thing that sets the only other team in school history to surpass 30 wins apart from them. The 2007-2008 Vols also hit 31 wins and reached the Sweet 16, and they won the SEC regular season championship.

Still, this past season’s Tennessee basketball team remains in some elite company. Despite not raising any banners, it’s safe to say that this was one of the greatest Vols teams of all time. And they deserve their place in history.

After all, they spent more weeks at No. 1 than any team in school history, they are among a select group of UT teams to make it to the regional semifinals, they are one of only three teams in school history to be a No. 2 seed, and they are one of only two teams to surpass 30 wins. So where does that place them in the scope of history?

Well, that’s where things get a bit complicated. In this post, we’re going to rank the five teams in Vols basketball history to not hang any banners. These are rare teams that have no accomplishment titles to their name. If you searched this team’s record in a Wikipedia graph, there’d be no highlight to denote an accomplishment

Our criteria for this is a national championship of Final Four, of which the Vols have neither, a conference regular season title, a conference tournament title or an early-season tournament title. Any of these things are banner-worthy.

However, the teams we are about to mention are legends when it comes to the history of the program but didn’t reach any of them. So let’s go ahead and break down who we’re talking about. This is our list ranking the five greatest teams in Tennessee basketball history who did not hang any banners.

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