Tennessee basketball: Vols top 10 modern-era teams with under 20 wins
2. 1974-1975
18-8 (12-6)
NCI First Round
Yes, this is a non-NCAA Tournament team ahead of two other NCAA Tournament teams, but the circumstances here are special. We’ll get to that. It was the first year the NCAA Tournament expanded to 32 teams and allowed non-conference champions in.
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This year laid the foundation for a run that would define the Ray Mears era, where they would make two NCAA Tournaments and win the SEC before health issues forced Mears into retirement. At the time, Mears won two regular season SEC titles with one Big Dance, back in 1967. They made two NITs and one alternative tournament as well.
Entering this year, Mears’ 13th on the job, the Vols had two stars from New York, Brooklyn freshman Bernard King and Queens sophomore Ernie Grunfeld. Yes, this was the first year of the Ernie and Bernie show. The Vols roared off to a 13-3 start, and all three of their losses were on the road to ranked teams: The Michigan Wolverines, Alabama Crimson Tide and Kentucky Wildcats.
They then lost at the Auburn Tigers, another ranked team, but had actually moved up to No. 15 in the polls the next week. After that, things fell apart a bit, as they lost at home to Alabama and fell to two unranked teams on the road down the stretch, the Ole Miss Rebels and LSU Tigers.
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But they did beat Kentucky at home, and that got them to 18-8 and into the National Commissioners Invitational Tournament. Although they lost that first game, they would’ve made the NCAA Tournament with that resume today, and with King and Grunfeld, this is easily the second best team to fail to win 20 games. After this, they began an epic run to end the 1970s.