Tennessee basketball jumped one-spot to No. 11 in this week’s AP Top 25 after earning two wins including a road victory at Louisville in the first week of the season.
The Vols remain the third highest ranked SEC team in the poll, coming in behind No. 2 Alabama and No. 5 Auburn. There are eight total SEC teams in this week’s AP Poll with Tennessee coming in ahead of No. 18 Arkansas, No. 19 Kentucky, No. 20 Florida, No. 22 Texas A&M and No. 25 Ole Miss.
Tennessee has one remaining non conference games against teams currently ranked in the AP Poll. The Vols will face either No. 12 Baylor or No. 21 St. John’s in their second game at Baha Mar Tournament later this month. Tennessee also plays at Illinois who is the top team out of the poll.
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Rick Barnes’ 10th Tennessee team got off to a 2-0 start to the season by taking care of business against Gardner-Webb in its season opener before going on the road to defeat Louisville on Saturday. The Vols knocked off Gardner-Webb 80-64 with the Runnin’ Bulldogs using a late game run to make the margin of victory in the teens and not the twenties.
Tennessee was slight underdogs against Pat Kelsey’s first Louisville team but led wire-to-wire. The Vols jumped out to a 10-0 lead and kept it in double digits for most the game before earning a 77-55 victory.
Transfer shooting guard Chaz Lanier looked the part, scoring 19 points while making three triples in the win. It was a topsy turvy performance for senior point guard Zakai Zeigler who scored 19 points and dished out seven assists but also had a new career-high 11 turnovers.
The Vols are back in action for two buy games this week, facing Montana on Wednesday night and Austin Peay on Sunday afternoon. Both games are at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center. Tennessee gets its next true challenges in two weeks when they head to the Bahamas to face Virginia and either St. John’s or Baylor.
