Tennessee now has inside track over Kentucky to No. 2 seed in SEC

Once again, Rick Barnes is putting a great season together at Tennessee. Following Tuesday night’s win over No. 4 Kentucky, the Vols are 19-6 (10-3) and have won eight consecutive conference games. Tennessee is coming close to two-seed territory for the NCAA Tournament and still has a huge matchup at home with Auburn on Feb. 26.

Heading into the third last weekend of the regular season, the Vols now own the inside track over Kentucky for the No. 2 seed at the SEC Tournament.

Tennessee controls its destiny

The Vols and Kentucky currently own identical 10-3 records in SEC play with five games left to play. Auburn is sitting in the No. 1 spot with an 11-1 conference record. Kentucky finished the year 0-1 against Auburn after falling to the Tigers on Jan. 22. Tennessee has yet to play Auburn.

In less than two weeks, the Vols will host Auburn, and a win in that game would give Tennessee the tiebreaker over Kentucky. If both teams were to win out, Tennessee is the one that would get the top seed for the tournament in Tampa.

Kentucky will now need some help to lock up that No. 2 seed.

Results against Arkansas will determine the race

After a road win against Missouri, Eric Musselman’s team is 10-1 in their last 11 games and sits at 9-4 in SEC play after an 0-3 start. The Hogs have been the best defensive team in the league during conference play and are the only team that currently owns a win over Auburn.

With a pair of matchups against Tennessee and a home game with Kentucky in the last five games of the season, the Razorbacks will have a big say in the conference race.

If Arkansas were to win out, the Hogs would drop Tennessee down to No. 4 and would then own a tiebreaker over Kentucky for the No. 2 spot thanks to a head-to-head win over the Wildcats. There is no getting around it, UK must win at Bud Walton Arena to secure a No. 2 spot.

Some of the biggest games of the SEC season will occur with Arkansas involved to close out the year. Technically, the Hogs also control their destiny.

Unfortunate scheduling

Thanks to a generous slate, Auburn only had to play the other three best teams in the league a combined three times. Two of those were on the road, but overall the Tigers got a gift from the league office. Meanwhile, Tennessee had to play both Arkansas and Kentucky twice getting the toughest draw. However, the Wildcats were the only ones in this foursome that had to go to Auburn Arena.

Some inefficient scheduling is going to potentially create some weird seeding situations for the SEC Tournament as the season comes to a close. Currently, Kentucky does not control its destiny, and falling to a No. 4 seed is 100 percent on the table now.

Not only does Kentucky need to win out for its NCAA Tournament resume, but the Wildcats also need to win out to get the best possible situation for the SEC Tournament.