Where Tennessee basketball finished in the final Coaches Poll, AP Top 25 of the season
Tennessee basketball moved up one spot and finished at No. 5 in both the final Associated Press Top 25 and the final USA Today Coaches Poll on Tuesday, after No. 1 UConn beat No. 2 Purdue in the NCAA National Championship game Monday night at State Farm Arena in Arizona.
The Vols (27-9) were No. 6 in both the Coaches Poll and the AP Top 25 when it was last updated on March 18, after they had dropped back-to-back games, losing to Kentucky on Senior Day at Thompson-Boling Arena, then to Mississippi State in the quarterfinal round of the SEC Tournament.
From there, though, Tennessee got a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament and made a run to the Elite Eight for just the second time in program history.
The Vols beat No. 15 Saint Peter’s 83-49 in Charlotte in the first round on March 21, then beat No. 7 Texas 62-58 on March 23 to advance to the Sweet 16. There they beat No. 3 Creighton 82-75 in Detroit. Purdue, the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Region, ended Tennessee’s season with a 72-66 win on March 31 at Little Caesars Arena.
Where Tennessee was ranked this season
Tennessee was ranked in each of the first 20 AP Top 25s this season, including 17 weeks ranked inside the top ten and nine weeks ranked in the top five of both the AP Top 25. The Vols were ranked as high as No. 4 (for two weeks) and as low as No. 17 in the AP Top 25 and No. 13 in the Coaches Poll.
Tennessee started the season at No. 9 in the AP Top 25 in the preseason, dropped to No. 17 on December 4 and climbed as high as No. 4 on February 26 and March 4.
The Vols were ranked No. 10 in the USA Today Coaches Poll preseason rankings. They were ranked as low as No. 13 in the Coaches Poll on December 4 and as high as No. 4 on February 26 and March 4.
In the NET, Tennessee started at No. 17 on December 4 and moved up as high as No. 3 on January 29.
Records set by Dalton Knecht, Rick Barnes in NCAA Tournament
Dalton Knecht set two Tennessee program records in his final game with the Vols. His 37 points in the Elite Eight loss to Purdue was the most scored by a Tennessee player in an NCAA Tournament game. His 104 points over four games in the tournament — 23 vs. Saint Peter’s, 18 vs. Texas, 26 vs. Creighton and the 37 vs. Purdue — set another program record for points scored in an NCAA Tournament run.
Rick Barnes also became Tennessee’s all-time winningest coach in the NCAA Tournament on the way to the Elite Eight run. The win over Creighton in the Sweet 16 was the ninth NCAA Tournament win for Barnes at Tennessee, passing Bruce Pearl’s eight.
Barnes is 9-6 in the NCAA Tournament with the Vols while Pearl went 8-6.
Don DeVoe was 5-6 in the NCAA Tournament. Cuonzo Martin went 3-1, taking Tennessee on a run from the First Four to the Sweet 16 as a No. 11 seed in 2014. Jerry Green won three tournament games and Ray Mears was 0-4.
