Tennessee women’s basketball team jumped from No. 16 to No. 11 in this week’s AP poll. The Vols jumped from No. 17 to No. 15 in the men’s AP poll.
The Lady Vols went 2-0 this week while the Vols went 1-1 in the Hall of Fame Tip-Off. Both teams only played top 25 opponents this week.
Kellie Harper’s third Tennessee team was relentless on the week, earning comeback wins over No. 23 South Florida and No. 12 Texas. The Lady Vols trailed in the fourth quarter of both games, including by double digits against Texas.
Big fourth quarter performances from Jordan Horston pushed the Lady Vols to two early season marquee wins.
The challenge continues for Tennessee this week as they travel to Las Vegas for the South Point Thanksgiving Shootout. The Lady Vols face Kansas on Friday night and Oklahoma State on Saturday night.
Former UT Assistant Kim English Upsets Maryland
Tennessee’s men’s basketball team went 1-1 on the week with a blowout loss to then-No. 5 Villanova and a blowout win over then-No. 18 North Carolina.
The Vols looked lost against the Wildcats but responded with a complete team performance against the Tar Heels. Nine Vols scored in and four Vols scored in double figures in the win.
Freshman point guard Zakai Zeigler starred in the win, scoring 18 points and dishing out five assists in the win.
Super senior John Fulkerson turned in his best performance of the young season, missing just one shot in a 13 point, six assist and five rebound performance.
“We feel like he’s anticipating contact and trying to overdo it in there,” Barnes said of Fulkerson. “Just go do his quick game that he has. We really wanted to play through our post as much as we can in dead ball situations … Fulky really did a good job in terms of keeping it simple for the most part. We obviously like to get him running to the basket some which there at the end you saw where he was out there and Kennedy were playing those two man games. He’s really effective there.”
Tennessee is the fourth highest rated team in the SEC, ranked behind Alabama, Kentucky and Arkansas. The Vols are ranked ahead of No. 19 Auburn and No. 23 Florida.
The Vols return to the court this week against Tennessee Tech on Friday at 3 p.m. ET.
