Tennessee Basketball to play Kansas in third-place game at Players Era Festival

LAS VEGAS — Tennessee Basketball won’t be playing for the Players Era Festival championship after the 76-73 win over No. 3 Houston Tuesday and the 85-60 win over Rutgers on Monday. Instead, the Vols have to settle for the third-place game and a matchup with the Kansas Jayhawks.

Michigan and Gonzaga will play in Wednesday’s championship game, with both teams jumping ahead of Tennessee and Kansas based on point differential. Michigan blew out Auburn 102-72 on Tuesday and Gonzaga hammered Maryland 100-61

Tennessee (7-0), which had a plus-23 point differential after the wins over Houston and Rutgers, will face Kansas (5-2) on Wednesday at 7 p.m. Eastern Time on TNT and HBO Max at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Michigan and Gonzaga will follow in the title game at 9 p.m. ET.

Players Era used six factors to seed field 1-18

Kansas had a plus-21 point differential after a 71-61 win over Notre Dame on Monday and a 71-60 win over Syracuse on Tuesday. Iowa State also went 2-0, with a plus-19 point differential after wins over St. John’s (82-81) and Creighton (78-60).

Gonzaga beat Alabama 95-85 Monday night and Michigan beat San Diego State 94-54.

The Players Era used six factors to rank the 18-team field from 1-18 after the first two days of the event: Overall record, head-to-head, point differential with a maximum of 20 points per game, points scored, points allowed and Associated Press Top 25 ranking.

Tennessee, which is ranked No. 17 in this week’s AP Top 25, scored 161 points in its two wins and allowed 133.

Ja’Kobi Gillespie on Tuesday led the Vols with 22 points in the rally from down 11 to beat Houston. Jaylen Carey scored 13 off the bench, to go with seven rebounds and 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 against Houston, 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.

Gillespie on Monday scored a career-high 32 points and made a career-high six 3-pointers while sparking the 85-60 romp over Rutgers. Ament added 20, going 4-for-6 from the 3-point line.

Tennessee won November tournaments in two of last three seasons

Tennessee last season won the Baha Mar championship in the Bahamas after wins over Virginia and Baylor. The Vols went 1-2 in the Maui Invitational two years ago, beating Syracuse before back-to-back losses to No. 2 Purdue and No. 1 Kansas. 

Three years ago Tennessee won the Battle 4 Atlantis in The Bahamas with wins over Butler, Southern Cal and No. 3 Kansas.

“You’re coming out here,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said Tuesday night, “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.”