The regular season has officially come to a close for the Tennessee Vols and while the win over South Carolina on Saturday was great to see, the loss to Ole Miss has officially haunted them. Last week, Tennessee was No. 4 in the country, but the team blew it against the Rebels on the road.
Because of that loss, Tennessee surely kissed away its chance to bring home its first No. 1 seed in program history for the NCAA Tournament. Not only that, but the AP Top 25 was just released and Rick Barnes saw his guys drop to No. 8 in the country. Is this a fair spot for UT?
Tennessee dropped to No. 8 in the country after losing to Ole Miss on the road
Had Tennessee taken care of business against Ole Miss, they'd still be in the Top 4 and be well on their way to that coveted No. 1 seed. Instead, Chaz Lanier and Zakai Zeigler are going to need to dig deep and make sure this locker room is focused for the SEC Tourney.
Selection Sunday is coming later this week and people can't wait to see where Tennessee will land. For now, all signs are pointing to the Vols taking home a No. 2 seed, but things could change in a big way depending on how things go this week in Nashville.
The potential is there for the Vols to go on a deep run and push for a conference title. With the way the bracket is set up, Tennessee will play either Texas A&M, Texas or Vanderbilt in the quarterfinals. Should the Vols win in that round, a potential date with Auburn would be on the way in the semis.
In the coming days, we're going to learn a lot about the Vols leading up to the NCAA Tournament. Yes, the loss to Ole Miss was a setback, but the response against South Carolina was great to see. If anything, Tennessee can use its new No. 8 ranking as motivation with the postseason here.