All things considered, the regular season ended fine for the University of Tennessee men's basketball team. After weeks of frustration and inconsistency, the Volunteers posted road wins at Florida and at South Carolina to clinch the SEC Eastern Division title. In terms of the upcoming SEC tournament in Tampa, this is significant because the Volunteers will get a first round bye.
Based on recent history, Tennessee will need all the help it can get in the SEC tourney. The Vols have perennially underachieved in this event and have not won it since 1979. So, based on past performance, Vols' fans should not get their hopes up. Still, anything can happen when we take the court on Friday.
However, I do not believe our performance in the tourney will impact our seeding for the NCAA tournament. Most of the major sports web sites have predictions regarding what teams will get into the tourney and where they will be seeded. ESPN's Bracketology currently has Tennessee as a number six seed. Personally, I believe that is too low. Given the strong schedule the Vols played plus our success in road games, I believe we should at least be seeded fifth.
The SEC is not getting much respect regarding its strength, so that is hurting Tennessee as well. Perhaps that will work in our favor. The Volunteers play the best when we play with a chip on our shoulders. If we enter the NCAA tourney with that frame of mind, we may have a chance to do some damage.
Let us hope so.
3 comments:
Tennessee 86 Alabama 62. The good Vols showed up tonight. We played excellent defense that produced turnovers and bad shots that resulted in easy transition baskets. It's a good start.
Tennessee 94 Auburn 85. If Tennessee can score 94 points a game from here on out, I think we'll be okay. Obviously, that won't happen, but it was a nice win today. We play Mississippi State in tomorrow's finals. Frankly, the more motivated team will likely be Mississippi State. They probably have to win this game to reach the NCAA tourney. We don't have that worry and may not play with the urgency of State. We'll see....
Miss State 64 Tennessee 61. Unfortunately, the evil Tennessee team showed up today. We let State dictate the tempo of the game, and we were tentative against their zone. Too bad.
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