Tennessee Lady Vols a 4-seed in final bracketology projections

After last Saturday’s loss to the South Carolina Gamecocks in the SEC Tournament, the Tennessee Lady Vols will enter the NCAA Tournament women’s basketball selection process with a 16-7 record and a 9-4 SEC regular season record. There is nothing they can do to change their resume at this point. But where does it stand?

Well, Kellie Harper’s team finishes play before the Big Dance ranked No. 14 in the AP Poll, where it was ranked last week, and No. 15 in the Coaches Poll, one spot up from last week. A close win over the Ole Miss Rebels complemented the South Carolina loss in the tournament last week.

In the NCAA NET Rankings, the most important barometer for determining the seeding for March Madness, the Tennessee Lady Vols came in at No. 14. The SEC teams ahead of them are South Carolina, the Texas A&M Aggies and the Georgia Bulldogs.

Taking all of this into account, bracketology experts appear to have UT locked in as a No. 4 seed. Charlie Creme of ESPN has them facing the No. 13 seed New Mexico Lobos in the first round and in a weekend-opening bracket with the No. 5 seed Gonzaga Bulldogs and No. 12 seed Rice Owls. The UConn Huskies are the top seed in that region.

College Sports Madness has Rocky Top facing the No. 13 seed Milwaukee Panthers in the first round and in a weekend-opening bracket with the No. 5 seed Rutgers Scarlet Knights and No. 12 seed Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens. The Stanford Cardinal were the top seed in that region.

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Obviously, given the fact that they were nearly a bubble team last year before postseason play got canceled, the Tennessee Lady Vols have taken a major step forward this year under Harper. This would be the highest seed they have earned since 2018, and they wouldn’t have earned one this high last year.

A big part of what will help them if they get a higher seed will be the fact that they have no bad losses. Every team to beat UT, including UConn, Texas A&M, South Carolina, the Kentucky Wildcats, the West Virginia Mountaineers and Georgia twice is in the top 25 of all major rankings.

Meanwhile, this team has quality wins over those same South Carolina and Kentucky teams, the Indiana Hoosiers and the Arkansas Razorbacks, all of whom are in the top 20 of all major rankings. That’s where the big jump is from last year, when UT had no bad losses but couldn’t really score any major quality wins either.

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Although having a losing record against such elite teams could hurt them, simply winning some of those games while having no bad losses is a huge deal. The Tennessee Lady Vols will find out where they go during the Selection Show for the women’s NCAA Tournament, which takes place Monday, March 15 on ESPN at 7 p.m. ET.