Where Tennessee Basketball is ranked before the Louisville game

Tennessee Basketball on Monday stayed put at No. 20 in the new Associated Press Top 25 and dropped three spots to No. 23 in the updated Coaches Poll on Monday afternoon, after being off last week.

The Vols, who dropped seven spots to No. 20 in both polls last week, haven’t played since losing 75-62 to Illinois on December 6 at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. It was the third straight loss, after losing to Kansas in Las Vegas on November 26 and 62-60 at Syracuse on December 2.

Tennessee (7-3) hosts No. 11 Louisville (8-1) on Tuesday in a 7 p.m. Eastern Time start on ESPN at Food City Center. Louisville beat Memphis 99-73 at home on Saturday and beat Indiana 87-78 in Indianapolis on December 6. The only loss of the season for the Cardinals was at Arkansas, 89-80, in the ACC-SEC Challenge on December 3.

The Vols started the two-year home-and-home with Louisville with a 77-55 win at the KFC Yum! Center last season.

Tennessee has been ranked for 87 straight weeks

Tennessee has now been ranked for 87 straight weeks in the AP Top 25, dating back to the first poll of the 2021-22 season. It’s the second-longest ranking streak in college basketball, trailing only Houston’s run of 113 straight weeks. 

Tennessee has been ranked in the top-10 50 times during the ongoing streak with 18 straight top-10 rankings to close last season. The Vols have been ranked in the top-5 23 times, including 11 times last season. The lowest ranking during the streak was No. 24 in January 2022.

Rick Barnes has had his Tennessee Basketball team ranked in the top 25 141 times, dating back to 2017-18. 

Tennessee was ranked No. 18 in the AP Top 25 preseason poll and No. 17 in the preseason Coaches Poll. The Vols dropped to No. 20 in the Week 2 and Week 3 AP Top 25 polls, then moved up to No. 17 and No. 13, before the drop back down to No. 20 last week. 

The Coaches Poll moved Tennessee down to No. 18 in the Week 2 update, then up to No. 17, No. 16 and No. 13 before the fall to No. 20.

Tennessee beat then-No. 3 Houston 76-73 on November 25 in Las Vegas, after beating Rutgers 85-60 a day earlier. The Vols led Kansas by 12 points with 15 minutes left in the Players Era third-place game, before the Jayhawks rallied to win. 

Vols ranked No. 18 in KenPom, No. 35 in NET

The season started with five straight wins in buy games, with Tennessee beating Mercer, Northern Kentucky, North Florida, Rice, Tennessee State, Rutgers and Houston. 

After five straight games away from home, the Vols have three home games, hosting Gardner Webb (Sunday) and South Carolina State (December 30) after the Louisville game. SEC play starts at Arkansas on January 3.

Tennessee is ranked No. 18 overall in the KenPom.com ratings. The Vols are No. 13 in adjusted defensive efficiency (96.0) and No. 39 in adjusted offensive efficiency (119.1). 

The NET has Tennessee at No. 35, dropping 24 spots from last week’s first NET ranking update of the season. Tennessee is 1-2 in Quad 1 games, 0-1 in Quad 2, 2-0 in Quad 3 and 4-0 in Quad 4.