Tennessee basketball jumped four spots from No. 11 to No. 7 in this week’s AP Top 25 after winning the Baha Mar Championship over the weekend.
The Vols had as strong a week as anyone else in the country, defeating Virginia by 22 points in their opening game of the tournament before jumping out to a massive lead and coasting past then-No. 13 Baylor for a 77-62 victory.
Rick Barnes’ 10th Tennessee team is now the second highest ranked team in the SEC, coming in behind No. 5 Auburn and ahead of No. 8 Kentucky, No. 9 Alabama, No. 18 Florida, No. 19 Arkansas, No. 20 Texas A&M, No. 23 Ole Miss and No. 25 Mississippi State.
The Vols jumped both Kentucky and Alabama in this week’s poll to be the second highest ranked team out of nine SEC teams in the top 25.
Tennessee is back in action for one game this week as they host UT Martin at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center on Wednesday evening at 4 p.m. ET. The Vols have seven more games before the start of SEC play including matchups against Syracuse, Miami and Illinois.
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No. 7 Tennessee enters the week 6-0 with three wins over power five teams and one win over a top 25 team. The Vols have yet to play a tight game this season with their 15-point win over Baylor being their closest of the season to this point.
Shooting guard Chaz Lanier had a big week, averaging 25.5 points on 13-of-22 (59%) from three-point range and four rebounds over the two games. Lanier’s big performances were significant as Zakai Zeigler shot struggled. Igor Milicic Jr. and Jordan Gainey also had strong performances in the tournament.
Tennessee has been banged up since the start of the season and received more bad injury news on Monday when sophomore center JP Estrella announced that he is having season-ending foot surgery. Estrella was Felix Okpara’s backup at the five-spot and was playing 10.3 minutes per game early in the season.
Cade Phillips’ role will increase more than anyone else due to the injury but a number of other players including Igor Milicic and Darlinstone Dubar could see an increase in minutes.
