Tennessee basketball bracketology seed hard to pin down after LSU win
Last week, Tennessee basketball was barely clinging to a top 25 ranking. However, they then scored a road win over the Vanderbilt Commodores and dominated the LSU Tigers, who remain in the top 20 of every possible ranking.
This win shot UT up in the standard rankings, moving them from No. 24 to No. 18 in the AP Poll and from No. 25 to No. 20 in the Coaches Poll. At 13-5 and 4-3 in the SEC, they’re becoming harder and harder to figure out.
In analytical rankings, Tennessee basketball is No. 8 in the ESPN BPI and No. 22 in the RealTime RPI. The Vols come in at No. 11 in the NCAA NET ratings, the formula most heavily valued for March Madness by the Selection Committee.
What’s helping the Vols right now is their strength of schedule, which is ranked No. 2 in the BPI and No. 13 in the RPI. They also have multiple quality wins, as LSU ranges from No. 6 to No. 19 in all key rankings and is in the top 10 of all analytical rankings, and Arizona is in the top four of every ranking except the RPI, where they’re No. 8. UT remains their only loss.
It also helps that the Vols have no bad losses by RPI or NET standards. They are undefeated un all games below Quad 1 and are 3-5 in Quad 1 games themselves in terms of NET rankings, and they still haven’t lost at home. In the BPI, their strength of record rank is No. 15.
With all of these metrics, it seems as if Tennessee basketball’s NCAA Tournament standing would range from a 2-seed to a 6-seed. That’s already a wide range, and bracketology forecasters have ranges almost that wide, but the forecasts are a bit lower.
Joe Lunardi of ESPN has the Vols as a No. 4 seed in the South Region facing the No. 13 seed Chattanooga Mocs in the first round. They would be in a first-weekend bracket with the No. 5 seed Alabama Crimson Tide and No. 12 seed UAB Blazers, and the Baylor Bears would be the No. 1 seed in their region.
Jerry Palm of CBS Sports has UT as a 6-seed. In his bracket, the Vols would be in the East Region, with the Kansas Jayhawks as the No. 1 seed, and they would open up against the No. 11 seed Wake Forest Demon Deacons. They would be in a first-weekend bracket with the No. 3 seed Purdue Boilermakers and No. 14 seed South Dakota State Jackrabbits.
By the way, as already mentioned, a 6-seed should be the lowest possible seed for the Vols, and that should only be a possibility if you go by the devalued RPI. However, some experts still have them below that for reasons nobody can explain.
Mike DeCourcy of FOX Sports has the Vols down to a No. 7 seed in the West Region and facing the No. 10 seed West Virginia Mountaineers in the first round. They would be in a first-weekend bracket with the No. 2 seed Wisconsin Badgers and No. 15 seed Seattle RedHawks, and the Gonzaga Bulldogs would be the No. 1 seed in their region.
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It makes no sense for Tennessee basketball to be that low, but they can overcome that with two games this week against unranked teams who are still solid. If they beat the Florida Gators at home and Texas Longhorns on the road, they should be a solid No. 5 seed by next week.