The Tennessee men’s basketball team had time to go back to the drawing board after its poor performance in the SEC Tournament. The Vols won’t have the luxury to do the same in their next postseason tournament. A loss there would end the season.
The Vols are hoping their wake-up call came early and they will return to the court with more urgency during the NCAA Tournament.
Tennessee (24-8) received a No. 2 seed in the Midwest Region. The Vols will play No. 15-seed Saint Peter’s in the first round Thursday in nearby Charlotte. The Vols have a chance to play Barnes’ former team, Texas, in the second round. The other top seeds in the region are: No. 2 Purdue, No. 3 Creighton and No. 4 Kansas.
The Vols are coming off arguably their worst performance of the season, a 73-56 loss to Mississippi State in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament. Tennessee was outplayed from the tip as the Bulldogs bullied the Vols and beat them at their own game.
The loss likely kept them from getting their first-ever No. 1 seed in an NCAA Tournament. It also reignited the narrative about head coach Rick Barnes’ lack of success in the NCAA Tournament.
Barnes has a 27-26 record in the NCAA Tournament. He took Texas to 14 straight NCAA Tournaments, including a Final Four appearance in 2003. Although Barnes has rebuilt the Vols into a perennial nationally-ranked program, Tennessee hasn’t gone past the Sweet 16 under his leadership.
In their previous five NCAA Tournament appearances under Barnes, the Vols have lost all five times to teams with lower seeds and have never beaten a team with a better seed.
“It’s college basketball, and we are where we are right now, and I think we know who we are and what we need to do,” Barnes says. “And it’s a whole new season. It’s a postseason, but it’s a new season for 68 teams that all of them were playing for a chance to win a national championship on Monday.”
The Vols were the only men’s team from the state to make the NCAA Tournament. Meanwhile, five women’s teams are in the field. The Lady Vols, Vanderbilt, Middle Tennessee State, UT Martin and UT Chattanooga all secured spots in the bracket.
The Lady Vols and Chattanooga are in the same quadrant of the Portland 4 Region. The Lady Vols (19-12) earned an at-large bid and received a No. 6 seed. They play Green Bay in the first round Saturday in Raleigh, North Carolina. No. 14 Chattanooga plays third-seeded host NC State.
The Lady Vols kept their streak alive of never missing the NCAA Tournament. Tennessee is the only program to participate in all 42 NCAA women’s tournaments. Chattanooga won the Southern Conference Tournament title for the second straight year to earn its 17th NCAA appearance.
The Lady Vols had a week off to recover from their heartbreaking 74-73 loss to No. 1 South Carolina in the semifinals of the SEC Tournament in which 6-foot-8 center Kamilla Cardoso banked in a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
In the midst of an impressive rebuild under head coach Shea Ralph, Vanderbilt is back in the field for the first time since 2014. The 12th-seeded Commodores earned an at-large bid and faced Columbia in a First Four game in the Portland 3 Region for the chance to play No. 5 Baylor in Blacksburg, Virginia.
Middle Tennessee State won the Conference USA Tournament title to advance to the NCAA Tournament for the 21st time and third time in the last four years. MTSU is the No. 11 seed in the Albany 2 Region and plays No. 6 Louisville in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
UT Martin won the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament title to earn its fifth NCAA Tournament appearance. The Skyhawks were scheduled to play fellow 16-seed Holy Cross in an Albany 2 Region First Four game for the chance to play top-seeded Iowa and national scoring sensation Caitlin Clark in Iowa City.
Throughout the season, many believed this Tennessee men’s team, with the addition of transfer scoring star Dalton Knecht, was capable of reaching the Final Four for the first time in program history. The performance in Nashville against Mississippi State may have introduced a bit of doubt.
But if this year’s men’s tournament mirrors the regular season, it should be one of the most wide-open in recent memory. Defending national champion UConn is the No. 1 overall seed, but few would be surprised if the Huskies didn’t repeat.
Tennessee believes the poor showing in the SEC Tournament won’t be repeated in any NCAA games.
“I think we’ve shown it this whole season, that we’re a team with resilience. I think games like this just build toughness for us,” UT junior guard Jahmai Mashack says. “But guarantee that we are going to go back, we’re going to look at whatever we need to look at. We’re going to look at what we have to do ourselves and as a team and we’re not going to go through what we went through (against Mississippi State).”
The Vols remain confident they can make a sustained run in their sixth straight NCAA Tournament appearance. They know being one-and-done in this event means they go home for good.
“There’s no second chances from (here),” Mashack says. “Whatever we need to fix, we’re going to get it fixed. We’re going to go from there and have ourselves a great March Madness.”