Vols climb to #18 in AP Poll

#28
#28
TheMookieMonster said:
I would be shocked if we climbed higher than #14. Metrics love us (as they should) but the “experts” haven’t been all that high on Tennessee. There is some extreme Big 10/Big 12 bias going on. Those teams can lose and still stay put. Tennessee will have plenty of chances to prove themselves these next few weeks though.
Click to expand...
Yeah, we'll see. I feel like we'll land somewhere in the 12-14 range.

Also, it's funny to remember that all six of our losses have been to teams in KenPom's top 18 (#3 Kentucky, #9 Villanova, #13 Texas Tech, #14 Texas, #16 LSU, #18 Alabama). I'd kill to flip the Alabama and LSU losses to wins, but nevertheless, we're in good shape. That's a STOUT resume, and to your point, lots of chances to improve it in the coming weeks.
 
#29
#29
We've had 6 chances to beat a KenPom top 25 team away from home. No cigar yet. One more to come against Arkansas. would be a good sign going into post season if we could pull this one off. these are the wins you need to advance in the tourney past week 2.
 
  • Like
Reactions: chuckiepoo
#30
#30
calban said:
We've had 6 chances to beat a KenPom top 25 team away from home. No cigar yet. One more to come against Arkansas. would be a good sign going into post season if we could pull this one off. these are the wins you need to advance in the tourney past week 2.
Click to expand...

Beating Arkansas in Bud Walton isn’t that important. Just ask Auburn. Take care of business at home and win 2/3 of Aub, Ark, UK and that is every bit as impressive. You’re not going to be playing “on the road” in March. It’s all neutral territory theoretically so you likely aren’t going to face an environment like Bud Walton again.
 
  • Like
Reactions: chuckiepoo
#31
#31
calban said:
We've had 6 chances to beat a KenPom top 25 team away from home. No cigar yet. One more to come against Arkansas. would be a good sign going into post season if we could pull this one off. these are the wins you need to advance in the tourney past week 2.
Click to expand...
Zona is technically away from home
 
#32
#32
I’m thinking we jump Marquette, Mich St, Ohio St, and Wisconsin. We wont jump Villanova and they won’t jump us ahead of UCLA or probably even Houston. So I’m saying we come in at 15. I’m going with this for Top 15...
1. Gonzaga
2. Arizona
3. Auburn
4. Kentucky
5. Kansas
6. Purdue (if they win today)
7. Baylor
8. Duke
9. Texas Tech
10. Providence
11. Illinois (if they win today)
12. Villanova
13. Houston
14. UCLA
15. Tennessee

I think they drop Houston quite a bit due to their SOS and losses to 2 unranked teams. I wouldn’t be surprised if they drop Houston below UCLA or even us but I doubt it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: feathersax
#33
#33
bleedingTNorange said:
Gotta think we move up a good bit, lots of teams ahead of us lost this week…would think around 13, could see 12 but definitely shouldn’t be any lower than 14 imo.
Click to expand...


We need to go at least 1-1 this week with a win over Kentucky and we need to limit Notae's looks in Fayetteville.

Notae will be the best guard that Tennessee has faced all season.
 
#35
#35
Volfan1000 said:
We need to go at least 1-1 this week with a win over Kentucky and we need to limit Notae's looks in Fayetteville.

Notae will be the best guard that Tennessee has faced all season.
Click to expand...
UK may be without Ty Ty and Toppin. That will put a lot of pressure on Tshiebwe, Wheeler, and Mintz to produce. Our defense needs to make Wheeler’s night a living he**. They won’t be as efficient without those two players and Wheeler turning the ball over. Tshiebwe will get his but we just have to limit the rest.
 
#36
#36
BallerVolFan said:
UK may be without Ty Ty and Toppin. That will put a lot of pressure on Tshiebwe, Wheeler, and Mintz to produce. Our defense needs to make Wheeler’s night a living he**. They won’t be as efficient without those two players and Wheeler turning the ball over. Tshiebwe will get his but we just have to limit the rest.
Click to expand...
We need Uros to use his 5 fouls all as non shooting on Tshiebwe. He needs to be bodied up on him the whole time
 
#37
#37
Volfan1000 said:
We need to go at least 1-1 this week with a win over Kentucky and we need to limit Notae's looks in Fayetteville.

Notae will be the best guard that Tennessee has faced all season.
Click to expand...

Didn't watch the entire bama-arkansas game, but their game plan seemed to work for the first three quarters of the game. Went zone with 4 defenders and man with one guy on notae. They also quit settling for 3s and started driving (mainly with the freshman pg Davidson (sp?)) to build a double digit lead. Then they inexplicably quit doing all of that, jacked up bad 3s, let notae shoot arkansas back into it, and barely held on for the win courtesy of a terrible notae 3 at the end.
 
#38
#38
BallerVolFan said:
I’m thinking we jump Marquette, Mich St, Ohio St, and Wisconsin. We wont jump Villanova and they won’t jump us ahead of UCLA or probably even Houston. So I’m saying we come in at 15. I’m going with this for Top 15...
1. Gonzaga
2. Arizona
3. Auburn
4. Kentucky
5. Kansas
6. Purdue (if they win today)
7. Baylor
8. Duke
9. Texas Tech
10. Providence
11. Illinois (if they win today)
12. Villanova
13. Houston
14. UCLA
15. Tennessee

I think they drop Houston quite a bit due to their SOS and losses to 2 unranked teams. I wouldn’t be surprised if they drop Houston below UCLA or even us but I doubt it.
Click to expand...
Kansas lost to #20, so I don't think they're going to move up three spots. Also, Texas Tech got pasted by unranked Oklahoma, so I'll be very surprised if they don't get knocked out of the top ten. Duke also lost to an unranked team, but I guess the Duke bias could keep them from falling more than one spot.

It's a complicated week, but I definitely think Tennessee should be rewarded with a bigger jump for being perfect when so many other teams lost.
 
#46
#46
Working from memory after skimming through each year, this might could be just the 7th time TN has ever been ranked through the entire season by the AP. I didn’t look back before 1966-67. Bruce did it twice. Jerry Green did it once. Mears did it twice, although one year includes not being ranked in the pre-season poll (but being ranked in week #1). However Mears did it when it was just a top 20 poll instead of the top 25. If TN hangs on, this would be the second time for CRB. Maybe Barnes can do it another few times to earn that “graceful exit”.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Lankykong, Willy14, cncchris33 and 3 others
New posts
You must log in or register to reply here.

VN Store



Back
Top