Tennessee Lady Vols bracketology: Losses maintain lower seeding

With two straight losses, the Tennessee Lady Vols are still in a similar NCAA Tournament position. Here is where the women’s basketball Volunteers stand.

Two weeks ago, the Tennessee Lady Vols were a top 25 team but in the lower-seed range, we mean from No. 8 seed all the way down to No. 12 seed, because of their horrible strength of schedule. Well, now they’re slipping out of the top 25 with a couple of losses, but they aren’t slipping out of their spots.

As the losses mount up, the schedule strength goes up as well. After a strength of schedule ranked outside of the top 150, UT now has a top 90 strength of schedule, pushing them up to No. 48 in the RealTime Women’s RPI.

Because of that, losses at the No. 1 ranked South Carolina Gamecocks and the No 6/5 ranked Mississippi State Bulldogs have almost helped them more than they have hurt them. And the Tennessee Lady Vols, now 17-6 and 7-3 in the SEC, are in the same position they have been in their NCAA Tournament prospects.

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Charli Creme of ESPN has UT as a No. 9 seed. In his bracket, they would face the No. 8 seed Creighton Bluejays in the first round of the Portland Region. Their bracket would be hosted by the No. 1 seed Oregon Ducks.

Kellie Harper’s team is a No. 8 seed in the Women’s College Sports Madness bracket. There, they would face the No. 9 seed North Carolina Tar Heels in a bracket hosted by the No. 1 seed Baylor Bears, which would be a very tough out.

Finally, fellow FanSided site High Post Hoops has Rocky Top as a No. 10 seed facing the No. 7 seed Texas Longhorns in the Greenville Region, which is where the No. 1 seed South Carolina Gamecocks would play. However, here the Lady Vols would open in a region hosted by the No. 2 seed UCLA Bruins.

Taking all this into account, it’s clear that the issue for the Lady Vols is still not enough quality wins, but losing to the good teams means they are hitting pars and doing nothing to fall. Right now, that win over the LSU Tigers is their best win. And to be fair, Rennia Davis was out when they lost to Mississippi State.

That means this team still has plenty of chances to prove things. They have a rematch with LSU, this time on the road, on Thursday after a week off. Then they host the Texas A&M Aggies and visit the Arkansas Razorbacks. All three teams are in the top 25 of the AP Poll or the RPI, or in Texas A&M’s case, both. So those are three teams who will help shoot up their schedule strength.

However, they could use a win over a couple of them. After losing to South Carolina and Mississippi State, doing that would alleviate some of the pressure from the NCAA Selection Committee. But for now, they haven’t fallen off the map yet.