Where Tennessee basketball is ranked in this week's Associated Press Top 25
Tennessee is ranked No. 2 in this week’s updated Associated Press Top 25, moving up two spots in Monday’s poll. The Vols went 2-0 at Thompson-Boling Arena last week, beating Georgia 70-41 on Wednesday and droppingTexas 82-71 on Saturday.
Purdue stayed at No. 1 and Tennessee jumped No. 3 Houston. Alabama dropped two spots to No. 4 after its loss at Oklahoma on Saturday.
The Vols (18-3, 7-1 SEC), who are ranked No. 1 overall in the KenPom.com ratings, play at Florida (12-9, 5-3) on Wednesday (7 p.m. Eastern Time; TV: ESPN2) and return home to host Auburn (15-6, 6-2) on Saturday (2 p.m. ET; TV: ESPN).
Olivier Nkamhoua scored a career-high 27 points and grabbed eight rebounds in the win over Texas on Saturday. Zakai Zeigler had 22 points and 10 assists, his third double-double of the season and second over his last three games.
Tennessee led by 22 points in the second half on the way to its fourth straight win since the 63-56 loss to Kentucky on January 14.
Vols ranked No. 1 overall in KenPom.com ratings
The Vols moved up to No. 2 overall in the NCAA.com Power 36 from Andy Katz and ESPN’s college basketball power rankings from Jeff Borzello.
“Rick Barnes beat his old school Texas,” Katz wrote, “and (Tennessee has) ascended to top-line status.”
“Tennessee allowed Texas back into Saturday’s game for a few minutes late in the second half,” Borzello wrote, “but the first 30 or so minutes were as good as we’ve seen anyone play this season. The Vols are just an elite outfit defensively. After keeping each of their previous three opponents below 60 points for the game, they held Texas to 28 points in the first half. And although it was somewhat inflated by a late surge, after Tennessee went up 67-50 with eight minutes left, Texas’ 1.08 points per possession were the most Tennessee has allowed all season.
“The Vols are starting to look much more dangerous offensively too, especially since Rick Barnes went to a smaller lineup. Olivier Nkamhoua had a career-high 27 points on Saturday, while Zakai Zeigler is averaging 17.3 points, 7.8 assists and 2.8 steals in the four games since he was inserted back into the starting five.”
Tennessee has been No. 1 in KenPom.com’s adjusted defensive efficiency for the last 10 weeks, giving up just 84.1 points per 100 possessions. The Vols are now No. 33 in adjusted offensive efficiency, scoring 113.8 points per possession.
Up Next: Tennessee at Florida, Wednesday, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN2
Entering the weekend, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi had Tennessee as his fourth and final No. 1 seed in his latest NCAA Tournament projection. Purdue, Alabama and Houston were the three teams ahead of the Vols on the No. 1-seed line.
Alabama, ranked No. 2 in last week’s AP Top 25, lost 93-69 at Oklahoma on Saturday. Houston, ranked No. 3 last week, struggled to beat unranked Cincinnati at home, 75-69. The Cougars trailed by seven at halftime before coming back to win.
Tennessee was ranked No. 11 in the preseason AP Top 25, dropped to No. 22 after the loss to Colorado on November 13 at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, then climbed back to No. 5 before the loss to Kentucky two weeks ago.
The Vols moved up five spots to No. 4 in last week’s AP poll.
Tennessee is No. 2 in the NET ranking, the metric used by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee to seed the 68-team field. The Vols have a 4-1 record in Quad 1 games, 3-2 in Quad 2 games and 11-0 in Quad 3 and Quad 4 games.
