Skip to main content
Join Now
Team Avatar
Tennessee

Tony Vitello identifies key areas Tennessee has grown in final month of season

Danby: Daniel Hager05/27/25DanielHagerOn3
Tony-Vitello-identifies-key-areas-Tennessee-has-grown-final-month-season
Tennessee baseball head coach Tony Vitello during a NCAA baseball game between the Tennessee Volunteers and Florida Gators at Lindsey Nelson Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn., on Friday, March 14, 2025. | © Angelina Alcantar/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

For the second consecutive season, Tennessee is hosting an NCAA Tournament Regional in Knoxville.

The Volunteers earned the No. 14 overall national seed, as were paired up with No. 2 seed Wake Forest, No. 3 seed Cincinnati and No. 4 seed Miami (OH). Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello spoke to the media on Tuesday, where he outlined the key areas that his program has grown in the final month of the season.

“I think that they’ve kept pushing forward in the direction you want to,” Vitello said on Tuesday. “There’s a lot of different categories to talk about where individuals have gotten better at or even maybe [the coaches] have gotten better at in learning our team. But the general direction which is forward in a positive way in a way that shows improvement, whether it shows up to you all or ends up on the scoreboard.”

Tennessee finished regular season 9-10 in final 19 games

Over the final month of the regular season, Tennessee won just 9 of its final 19 games but still earned a first-round bye in the 2025 SEC Tournament. The No. 8 seeded ‘Vols held off No. 9 seed Alabama 15-10 and then upset No. 1 seed Texas 7-5 in the quarterfinals. That was likely the win that elevated them to a Regional host, before they fell to No. 4 seed Vanderbilt 10-0 in the semifinals.

“Just the overall vibe is push forward,” Vitello said. “We just make it more enjoyable to come to work each day. It has been a good environment in particular pregame. The one thing they need to take responsibility for is, as the game goes on with all these crazy ups and downs, (now it will be more chaotic than ever for not just us but every program) maintaining that same sort of energy in an outlook.”

Although the 2025 season was a bit of a stepback from the 2024 season (to be expected), Tennessee still finished at No. 11 in the RPI Rankings with a 43-16 record. The ‘Vols were 14-11 against Q1 teams, 7-5 against Q2 teams, 3-0 against Q3 teams and 19-0 against Q4 teams. No bad losses for Tony Vitello’s team this season.

The reigning National Champions will open play in the NCAA Tournament Friday night at 6:00 PM against No. 4 seed Miami (OH). Tennessee is looking to become the first program to win back-to-back National Championships since South Carolina did so in 2010-2011.