With the Sweet 16 and the Elite Eight having run their course last weekend, there are a handful of things to come to grips with from a Tennessee Volunteers perspective from their time in Chicago. While the Vols did a fantastic job of handling a depleted Iowa State team in the Sweet 16, they were simply no match for Michigan during the Elite Eight. The final score got out of hand in a hurry, 95-62...
This was the third straight trip the Vols made to the Elite Eight under head coach Rick Barnes' watch. No matter how good Tennessee has been during the regular season for the last four years, the Vols have always found a way to play into the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament. Sadly, it always seems to end there for them. No doubt about it, the Volunteers overachieved this season for Barnes.
It may get lost to history in the end, but this was only a No. 6 seed in the Midwest Region for Tennessee. The previous two years had them in a much more navigable spot in the bracket. However, their Elite Eight woes not only continue, but may have put a curse on the team who beats them. All eyes are on Michigan to see if it suffers the same fate as 2024-25 Houston and 2023-24 Purdue did.
While we should not crush Barnes for losing to Michigan, the manner in which the Vols did was brutal.
Tennessee's Elite Eight experience should have helped out Rick Barnes
Look. Even if the results have been so painfully frustrating for the Vols over the last few years, the situation has not changed. In fact, one would think all of Barnes' experience of getting this far into the NCAA Tournament would eventually get the Vols into untrodden territory. To date, Tennessee has never made it to a Final Four. It is simply mind-blowing this is still the reality for this elite SEC program.
While getting to a Final Four is something Tennessee has still yet to accomplish, Barnes did take the Texas Longhorns to one during his incredible run over in Austin. Granted, that was well over two decades ago... The game has changed many times over since that sensational tournament for the Longhorns. The big question now is what has to change for the Vols? Will anything become of it now?
With his top assistant in Justin Gainey off to lead his alma mater's North Carolina State Wolfpack, we have to wonder if a change at the helm on the bench could be just enough to mix it up for the Vols. Gainey's departure for Raleigh could be addition by subtraction, or it could expose Barnes even more so. Regardless, something has to give with the Volunteers next season. It cannot lose like this again...
Getting beat by Michigan is one thing, but getting beaten like a drum at the hands of them is another.