Five NCAA Tournaments overall made up the decade for Tennessee basketball. Here is a look at the Volunteers wins in the Big Dance.
Even with four different head coaches and two fired due to NCAA infractions, Tennessee basketball made five NCAA Tournament appearances from 2010 through 2019. They advanced in four of them and came away with a 9-5 record throughout the decade.
Those nine win helped the Vols make it to the second round (or first round before play-in games) all five times, the third round (or second round before play-in games) four of five times, the Sweet Sixteen three of five times and the Elite Eight once. They were a few heartbreaking losses away from more Elite Eight Appearances.
In fact, UT’s three losses in the second weekend this decade came by a combined eight points, and five of them were in an overtime loss. That’s how much heartbreak they suffered when they did advance in the NCAA Tournament.
Nonetheless, Tennessee basketball had lots of shocking success during this decade relative to everything they went through, and it’s worth looking back on. In this post, we’re going to rank all of these NCAA Tournament wins by how memorable they were.
The round in which the tournament was played, the quality of the win and the excitement of the game are all factors into how great of a win it was in the postseason. It makes for an exciting look-back on this decade from the perspective of anybody in Vol Nation.
Nine is the most NCAA Tournament wins Rocky Top ever enjoyed in a decade, up from seven in the 2000s. So UT clearly gave us a lot to write about, and the hope among many is that more are to come in the 2020s with Rick Barnes at the helm.
Anyway, how memorable were these games in the 2010s? Which ones will fans in Knoxville never forget? Let’s break all of that down here. This is our ranking of Tennessee basketball’s nine NCAA Tournament wins during this decade.