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Tennessee basketball: Ranking Vols finish to every season in 2010s decade

By Caleb Calhoun

PHOENIX, ARIZONA - DECEMBER 09: Jordan Bowden #23 of the Tennessee Volunteers celebrates after defeating the Gonzaga Bulldogs in the game at Talking Stick Resort Arena on December 9, 2018 in Phoenix, Arizona. The Volunteers defeated the Bulldogs 76-73. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
PHOENIX, ARIZONA - DECEMBER 09: Jordan Bowden #23 of the Tennessee Volunteers celebrates after defeating the Gonzaga Bulldogs in the game at Talking Stick Resort Arena on December 9, 2018 in Phoenix, Arizona. The Volunteers defeated the Bulldogs 76-73. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images
Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images /

6. 2012-2013

20-13 (11-7)

NIT First Round

Coming off of 2011-2012, Tennessee basketball had much higher expectations. Sure, they lost Cameron Tatum, but all of those other key players we mentioned on the previous slide were set to return with more experience, and the emergence of Josh Richardson would help offset the loss of Tatum. So things were looking up.

However, Cuonzo Martin suffered a major setback before he could ever get anything going. Jeronne Maymon, whom he would build his inside game around with Jarnell Stokes, suffered a season-ending injury right off the bat. As a result, Rocky Top had another rough start to the season, trying to figure out how to win without Maymon.

Part of that start was back to back games in which they failed to even score 40 points against the Georgetown Hoyas and Virginia Cavaliers. To be fair, they entered SEC play at 8-4 this year as opposed to 7-7, so they were in much better shape.

Once league play began, they lost three straight. In February, they were 11-10 and 3-6 in the SEC. But once again, a strong finish began. That included wins at the South Carolina Gamecocks, Vanderbilt Commodores, Texas A&M Aggies and Auburn Tigers along with home wins over the No. 25 ranked Kentucky Wildcats, whom they blew out, and the No. 8 ranked Florida Gators.

As a result, they once again had a strong finish to reach the bubble of the NCAA Tournament, and they won one SEC Tournament game before being eliminated. However, they were snubbed from the NCAA Tournament and took their disappointment out on losing the first round of the NIT. It was a bitter end, but the finish overall was better.

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