Tennessee basketball: Vols top 10 modern-era teams with under 20 wins

5. 2011-2012

19-15 (10-6)

NIT Second Round

Cuonzo Martin won over the fan base in a lot of ways his first year on the job. Sure, he failed to make the NCAA Tournament after Tennessee basketball made it their six straight times. But he inherited a mess given the way the Vols had fired Bruce Pearl, lost all their recruits and saw their two leading scorers leave for the NBA.

On top of that, Martin was changing the offense from the flex to the motion offense and his defense from an up-tempo press to a half-court man-to-man. The result was a series of bad losses that got them off on the wrong foot with a 3-6 start. However, they began to find a rhythm, got to 7-6 and upset the No. 13 ranked Florida Gators en route to 8-8 and 1-1 SEC Start.

Then everything changed, as Jarnell Stokes arrived. Stokes had to get acclimated to the system, as his debut was against the eventual national champion Kentucky Wildcats. UT had a three-game losing streak to fall to 8-10. However, they then upset the defending national champion UConn Huskies. At 10-12 after another loss at Kentucky, they finally found their rhythm.

The Vols won eight of their final nine, including beating Florida again, to finish second in the SEC to Kentucky. A loss in their first SEC Tournament game and the bad start, however, kept them out of the NCAA Tournament, and they reached the second round of the NIT. But this team at the end was the best Vols team ever to not reach 20 wins. That start matters, though, so they are No. 5.