Tennessee Basketball has to wait to find out Wednesday opponent, stakes in Players Era

LAS VEGAS — It’s not easy for Rick Barnes, in his 39th season as Division I head basketball coach, to have a first. But while he walked through the halls of the MGM Grand Garden Arena Tuesday night, after No. 17 Tennessee rallied from down 11 to beat No. 3 Houston 76-73, he realized he was facing something he had never faced before.

“I can just say this,” Barnes said, “it’s the first time in my career that we’re 24 hours away from playing a game and we don’t know who we’re going to play. I don’t know.”

The Vols (7-0) don’t know who they’re playing, when they’re playing or what they’re playing for.

What is almost certain is that Tennessee will play for either the Players Era Festival championship or in the third-place game on Wednesday, after going 2-0 over the first two days in the event. The title game for the 18-team field starts at 9:30 p.m. Eastern Time on TNT, following a 7 p.m. ET third-place game.

“It is difficult,” Barnes said of the unknown, “but it will be the same for them too. I guess we’ll play one of these teams that’s still left to play. I don’t know how that works out.”

Wednesday’s game are based on a 1-18 ranking of all the teams in Las Vegas, with six factors going into the seeding: Overall record, head-to-head, point differential with a single-game maximum of 20, points scored, points allowed and Associated Press Top 25 ranking.

After an 85-60 win over Rutgers on Monday and the comeback win over Houston on Tuesday, the Vols are one of three teams that are 2-0. Tennessee has a point differential plus-23, currently the highest in the tournament, ahead of Kansas and Iowa State, two other 2-0 teams.

Tuesday’s remaining matchups are Maryland and Gonzaga and Auburn and Michigan. Tennessee could be jumped based on point differential, but can’t fall lower than third.

The standings after Tennessee’s win over Houston would have Kansas matched up with the Vols in the title game. But the opponent could be Michigan if Michigan beats Auburn by two or more points and the Gonzaga-Maryland winner is by single digits.

Tennessee could face Auburn if Auburn wins its game by 11 or more and the Gonzaga-Maryland game is a single-digit difference.

“I guess we’ll have to wait until both of these games are over,” Barnes said. “I don’t understand the points (differential) and all this and all that.” 

Ja’Kobi Gillespie led the Vols on Tuesday with 20 points and Jaylen Carey scored 13 off the bench, to go with seven rebounds. Nate Ament battled foul trouble and missed shots, finishing with nine points, five rebounds and four assists while going 1-for-8 from the field.

Bishop Boswell starred all over the court on both ends, scoring 10 points on 4-for-4 shooting with four rebounds and three assists. JP Estrella had eight points and five boards and Felix Okpara added nine points.

Tennessee on Monday got a combined 52 points from Gillespie and Ament in the 85-60 win over Rutgers, with Gillespie scoring a career-high 32 points on a career-high six made 3-pointers and Ament adding 20.

“You’re coming out here,” Barnes said, “obviously you know you’re going to have great competition, and obviously the money that is involved too. But that’s not the drive. You come out here knowing that you want to play, get a good read for where you are and that was our goal coming out here.”