Tennessee basketball dropped one-spot to No. 6 in this week’s AP Poll after a topsy turvy 1-1 week. Kansas jumped the Vols’ after knocking off then-No. 4 Houston on Saturday.
The Vols suffered their worst loss of the season on Tuesday night when they fell to South Carolina at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center. Tennessee bounced back with one of its best wins of the season, going on the road and knocking off then-No. 10 Kentucky 103-92 at Rupp Arena.
After combining for four points on one-of-nine shooting in the South Carolina loss, junior point guard Zakai Zeigler and super senior wing Josiah-Jordan James combined for 52 points on 17-of-29 shooting from the field against Kentucky.
The pair of 26-point performances gave Zeigler and James two of Tennessee’s five best individual scoring performances at Rupp Arena.
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Tennessee remains the highest ranked team in this week’ AP Top 25, coming in ahead of No. 12 Auburn, No. 15 South Carolina No. 16 Alabama and No. 17 Kentucky. Ole Miss also received votes.
The Vols are looking to build momentum off their win at Kentucky this week when they host LSU at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center on Wednesday before traveling to College Station to face Texas A&M on Saturday night. The Tigers enter Wednesday night’s game having lost five of their last seven. Texas A&M is firmly on the bubble and needs a win over Tennessee badly to boost its NCAA Tournament resume.
Tipoff between Tennessee and LSU is at 7 p.m. ET on Wednesday night. The SEC Network is broadcasting the game.
