Tennessee basketball's ranking in new AP Top 25 poll doesn't make any sense

Due to the recent run the Tennessee Vols have had, the team is riding high and building momentum. Following a home loss to Kentucky, Tennessee has followed things up with wins over Florida, Missouri and Oklahoma. Yup, the guys are looking sharp.

Following that win over the Gators, Tennessee moved up to being the No. 4 team in the country, which was well deserved. After the wins over Mizzou and the Sooners, the hope was that UT would move up a spot or two in the latest rankings, especially with Duke and Auburn suffering losses. Instead, the opposite has happened, which has fans quite upset:

Tennessee is ranked No. 5 in the new MBB AP Top 25 poll

With Florida taking down then No. 1 Auburn, the worry was the Gators would jump Tennessee - they did. However, with Duke suffering a loss to Clemson, which was unranked at the time, a lot of people thought the Blue Devils would take more of a tumble. Instead, Duke is tied for third with Florida, while Tennessee dropped to No. 5.

We've got to give credit to Florida for taking down Auburn, but this was the same team Tennessee beat by 20 points not long ago in Knoxville. Did that not come into play for the new rankings? If anything, UT should have stayed at No. 4 at minimum.

Rick Barnes and his players have a fair gripe, but we're going to go ahead and guess they're not too worried about the rankings. Instead, the Vols are fully focused on taking down Kentucky on Tuesday night, as a showdown between two ranked teams is on the way.

When UK and Tennessee last met, the Wildcats stunned the Vols. It was a loss no one saw coming, with Barnes, Chaz Lanier, Zakai Zeigler and others being left with a sour taste in their mouths. Will revenge be delivered on Tuesday night? UT supporters hope so. At the same time, a strong win against Kentucky could make the difference in the Vols moving up in the rankings at this point next week.