Tennessee basketball is back in the Sweet 16 for the third straight season as they look for the first Final Four appearance in program history this weekend in Lexington.
With the Field of 68 whittled down to 68 teams, ESPN updated its rankings of the best teams remaining in the field. Tennessee landed as the No. 5 team remaining behind Duke, Florida, Houston and Auburn.
“Recognized for his strong defensive teams, Barnes knows how to showcase his best players,” ESPN wrote. “This season, it could be Chaz Lanier, who averaged 20.0 PPG in Tennessee’s 12 most recent victories. The NCAA tournament is defined by its stars, and Lanier has been that for the Vols, who also can shut down opponents with their top-tier defense. Lanier could make the difference in taking Barnes to the Final Four for the just the second time in his career.”
The Vols were the top two-seed entering the NCAA Tournament after posting a 27-7 (12-6 SEC) record through the regular season and conference tournament. After a chalk filled first weekend of the NCAA Tournament where seven of the eight two seeds advanced, ESPN kept Tennessee as the fifth best team in the field.
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Tennessee had a successful first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, knocking off 15-seed Wofford 77-62 and seven-seed UCLA 67-58. The Vols built a lead as large as 19 points in the second half before taking their foot off the gas in the game’s final minutes.
Senior shooting guard Chaz Lanier had a fantastic first weekend of the tournament averaging 24.5 points on 10-for-19 three-point shooting over the first two games of the opening weekend. Point guard Zakai Zeigler was also stellar, averaging 13.5 points and nine assists in the two games.
The Vols head to Indianapolis where they’ll face rival Kentucky in the Sweet 16. It’s the first ever meeting between Tennessee and Kentucky in the NCAA Tournament. ESPN ranked Kentucky as the eighth best remaining team. Three ESPN college basketball writers— Jeff Borzello, Myron Medcalf and Joe Lunardi— picked Tennessee to knock off the Wildcats to advance to the Elite Eight for the second straight season.
One-seed Houston and four-seed Purdue are the two other teams in the Midwest Region Semifinals. ESPN rated Houston as the third best team remaining and Purdue as the 15th best team remaining.
Tipoff between Tennessee and Kentucky is at 7:39 p.m. ET on Friday night at Lucas Oil Stadium. Both TBS and TruTv are broadcasting the game.
