The 2023-24 college basketball season came to an end on Monday night when Connecticut knocked off Purdue to win the National Championship for the second straight season.
With the season in the rearview, the final Associated Press Poll of the season released. Tennessee basketball came in at No. 5 in the rankings, one spot higher than they were in the poll entering the NCAA Tournament.
The Vols are the second highest rated team in the final rankings of the season, coming in behind T-No. 3 Alabama and ahead of No. 18 Auburn, No. 29 Kentucky and No. 24 South Carolina.
Tennessee played six other teams that landed in the final AP Poll of the season including No. 2 Purdue, No. 6 Illinois, No. 7 North Carolina, No. 10 North Carolina State, No. 13 Creighton and No. 19 Kansas. In 14 games against teams in the final AP Poll of the season, Tennessee posted an 8-6 record.
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It was a banner season for Tennessee basketball. The Vols posted a 27-9 (14-4 SEC) record over the course of the season, winning their first outright SEC Regular Season Championship since 2008.
Earning a two-seed in the NCAA Tournament, Tennessee made it to the Elite Eight for just the second time in program history. The Vols knocked off 15-seed Saint Peter’s, seven-seed Texas and three-seed Creighton in the Big Dance before falling to one-seed Purdue in the final game of the season.
Tennessee landed in the AP Poll every single week during the 2023-24 season and has now landed in the rankings in 74 of the last 77 weeks— an incredibly impressive mark for Rick Barnes’ program.
While there’s plenty for Barnes and his staff to do to fill out the roster before next season, Tennessee was in every way-too-early top 25 rankings on Monday. See a compilation of where the Vols land in the rankings here.
