With three weeks to go, we have a pair of really interesting storylines: can Kentucky go 16-0, and which teams will emerge from the total gridlock behind them? Since conference play began, the assumption has been that this was a five bid league. But right now I could see as few as four or as many as six making the dance, and nine teams have to still be entertaining being among that group in the front or the back of their minds. With an amazing seven teams between 7-3 and 5-5, this is an especially difficult ballot, so as always your comments are appreciated. Read on and watch me stunningly resist the temptation to rank the Vols ahead of Florida.

1. Kentucky - 25-1 (11-0) - RPI 3 - KenPom 2 - BPI 1

Here's the thing with this bunch: they don't feel like it because Calipari's first UK team had so much flash with John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins, who were both more unique than anyone on this current team, and that 2010 team had all the Year One newness and hype...but this is Cal's best Kentucky team, and it may not be close. The last UK team to go 16-0 in 2003, with Bogans and Fitch? This team would embarrass them. Anthony Davis is a destroyer of worlds in the paint, but you can't say, "Well, we'll just shoot threes", because they're so long with Kidd-Gilchrist and Terrence Jones they block those too. How you get consistently unaffected shots against this team is beyond me. Semi-serious question: at what point does Cal decide to throw a game because he's worried his guys got bored? I could see them losing a second round tournament game because they weren't focused (like Princeton in the first round last year), but otherwise this should absolutely be a Final Four team at worst.

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Yeah, cage fighting. It's later. But first:

Hoops. The rest of the world may have been surprised that the Tennessee team that had not yet won a road game beat a top 10 team riding a 19-game home winning streak, but Cuonzo Martin wasn't surprised, and in fact, he told the team before the game that Saturday was "the first time we're really ready to win a road game." The players just had that certain something that they'd been missing up until then:

When players walk with a certain type of swagger, a level of confidence — not cockiness, not arrogance — they can play, and they can compete.

Martin also said that the win was the first that the team had won on both ends. It also had some side benefits, the best of which was that it impressed Vol signee Derek Reese and the least of which is that it allowed Mike Strange to finish his work before he got off the plane just by apparently transcribing his taped conversations with fans in the airport. Another bonus is that it elicited this gem from Jarnell Stokes about his flagrant foul:

Basketball is a competitive game, and I wasn't going to let him score. But he's a big guy, and I'm surprised he fell like that.

Heh. Yet Life with Cuonzo means the celebration is short-lived (if not non-existent), and the team is already focusing on building the momentum Wednesday.

Here are the postgame quotes, notes, and YouTube playlist:

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To get you caught up in case you missed it, here's a link to Friday's offensive breakdown.

The Cliff's: UT has 70 scholarship players on its roster now with 14 signed high school players yet to make it into town. There's the possibility that the Vols could add one more player, but that's still up in the air. With only 13 scholarship players set to graduate after this upcoming season, that means UT can only bring in 14 kids in next year's class.

There will be attrition [check the rules listed in Part I of this two-part series on listing potential defections]. And we're going to operate under the thought that Derek Dooley will not be able to sign a full class of 25 but that the Vols will make it to 23-24 signees for the 2013 class.

NOTE: UT has a lot of defensive backs who can play cornerback or safety. So, we'll do a little projecting below. Again, there could certainly be differences in where I see a player fitting or moving to and where the coaching staff does. Again, as we mentioned Friday on the offensive side, some players may be listed twice.

So, without delaying any longer, let's break down the defensive side of the football.

INTERIOR DEFENSIVE LINEMEN [TACKLES/NOSE GUARDS]

Returning players: Sr. Maurice Couch, Sr. Daniel Hood, Sr. Daniel McCullers, Jr. Alan Carson, Jr. Greg Clark, So. Danny O'Brien, So. Trevarris Saulsberry, So. Trent Taylor.

Possible defections/roster questions: I don't see any way that Clark gets any playing time, so he's a possibility to go elsewhere or not be on the team by this time next year. Taylor is already 270, so there's a legitimate possibility that he packs on another 30 or more pounds and stays in the middle. He is going to be another one of those hybrid types, and it'll be interesting to see with Saulsberry's size where he winds up -- inside or out.

Recruiting targets: 2-3. I see the Vols wanting AT LEAST five defensive linemen overall in next year's class. How they sort that out remains to be seen, but with UT graduating three interior linemen -- and likely the three who will get the most playing time, finding help on the inside will be essential. My early guess is the Vols seek two big-body, 300-plus pound types to anchor the 3-4. This is a specialized position that would be best-suited to be filled with a huge player who can still move around some inside. I'll go with two, but that number could swell to three if the opportunity arises.

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Upon seeing this, your first inclination may be that it is fake -- a joke.* No no. It's realer than real deal Holyfield, and at time of publication is still on the front page of merriam-webster.com.

*To be fair, it is hilarious like a joke.

(Hat tip to Card Chronicle -- the excellent SBN site for the University of Louisville Cardinals -- for discovery of this gem.)

Nevermind the margin, aided by four garbage threes in the last 35 seconds. Tennessee came into Gainesville and dominated #7 Florida. Again.

Florida hadn't lost at home all year. Over. Tennessee hadn't won on the road all year. Over. Tennessee hadn't scored 75 points since heavy competition began with the second Memphis game. Over. Players not named Renaldo Woolridge were 5 of 37 from the three point line in their last three road games. Over.

And for a season that many were forced to believe would end, at best, with settling for a third-tier postseason tournament we'd never heard of and putting an emphasis on the future? Tonight that's over too. Tennessee goes to 13-12, gets back even at 5-5 in the SEC, and could be in a four way tie for fifth place in the SEC by the end of the night, just a game out of third.

There were lots of ways to finish above .500 and hope the NIT called your name. But none would've helped Tennessee's RPI more than what they did tonight. Now the Vols need only a split in their final six regular season games to get above .500...and right now, a split might feel like a disappointment.

But more on where the Vols go from here in a moment. First, let's talk about how Tennessee imposed their will on the Gators for the second time this season.

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	February 11, 2012 O'Connell Center, Gainesville, FL 4:00 PM ET TV: SECN Internet TV: ESPN Live stats: UT Sports
12-12 (4-5) NR		19-5 (7-2) #8 AP #7 ESPN/USA Today

Jackson the Mule says . . .

. . . I'm a Hater of the Gators! LOLOLOLOLO ROTGLMAO LOL HAHAHAHAHHHHHHAAAAA. HA. ha. . . . ahem. Yeah. Carry on.

Leave your pre-, in-, and post-game thoughts below.

The biggest win of Cuonzo Martin's young career in Knoxville was January 7 against Florida. The Memphis game in Maui felt like something special until the end, though it turned out to be a false alarm. The UConn game may end up being more memorable because of the way Jarnell Stokes played. But the best team Tennessee owns a win over this season is, without question, the Gators.

Florida stands at 19-5 (7-2). There are a pair of single digit road losses to Ohio State and Syracuse and a curious double overtime loss to Rutgers. But between their loss to us in the SEC opener and their loss at Rupp Arena on Tuesday, the Gators beat everybody else. Everybody else includes LSU and Mississippi State by a dozen and Vanderbilt by eight points, plus Ole Miss on the road.

The Vols beat the Gators with sensational defense, plain and simple. Florida averages 79 points per game, 12th nationally and first in the SEC. The Vols held them to 56, still their lowest total of the season; only Kentucky (58) has also held them under 64. Florida shoots 46.7% from the floor and a best-in-the-SEC 39.5% from the arc. The Vols held them to 35.7% from the floor and 31.8% from the arc - only Kentucky held them to a lower percentage overall, and only three teams have done a better job guarding the three point line.

Tennessee's performance wasn't a fluke, as we've discovered in the last month. Florida's part of that equation has looked familiar in the last two weeks: even if you throw the Kentucky performance out because everyone looks bad in Rupp Arena, the Gators have struggled from the floor in their last two home games against South Carolina (37.3%) and Vanderbilt (38.3%). They were able to win both games thanks to free throw shooting (23 of 32 against Carolina, 16 of 17 against Vandy) and a strong performance from three against the Dores (11 of 24). But their numbers are trending in the wrong direction. So either they're due - and many will be playing the rebound card after the performance against Kentucky - or they've truly cooled off, and Tennessee's defense is the last thing they want to see.

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The Tennessee Volunteers have finally caught up numbers-wise -- almost too caught up, actually.

By my count, UT has 70 scholarship players currently on its roster including the mid-term enrollees. Throw in the 14 committed high school players yet to arrive on campus, and that gets the Vols to 84. If Jacksonville (Fla.) inside linebacker Kenneth Bynum decides this week that he wants to join UT over Cincinnati, that would put the team right at the 85 scholarship player limit allowed by NCAA rule.

As of now, the Vols are in line to lose only 13 senior scholarship players after the 2012 season -- Marsalis Teague, Rod Wilks, Prentiss Waggner, Herman Lathers [likely, unless he gets another year from the NCAA], Ben Bartholomew, Nigel Mitchell-Thornton, Carson Anderson, Dallas Thomas, Darin Gooch, Mychal Rivera, Zach Rogers, Willie Bohannon and Steven Fowles. That would mean that -- unless some major attrition happens -- UT will only be able to sign 13 [or 14, if Bynum elects to head north] next year.

We all know that's not going to happen and the Vols will find a way to make more room, but still, we'd have to cull 12 players between now and next year's National Signing Day to get to the 25 max. That seems tough to imagine. There is the looming possibility that several Vols will test the NFL waters early, and while we hope that doesn't happen, it would clear recruiting spots for the next class.I do think the Vols will get close to that number, but 10 is probably the most room they will clear. So, we'll operate off Derek Dooley getting to 23 scholarships in time for the 2013 class.

For our exercise below, the information below can get a bit tricky unless you keep some things in mind. To note, a junior for the upcoming 2012 season will be referred to as a senior leading into the '13 class, and so on. We're going to list the players at each position the Vols will be returning, their class and also give a projection on who may look elsewhere for playing time.

NOTE:

• We will not base potential transfers on ANYTHING besides lack of playing time or NFL departures. So, you won't get anything like "If Player X gets homesick" ... or ... "If Player Y gets in trouble."
  
• UT's offensive line is full of players who can play guard or tackle, so we'll separate the centers from the exterior linemen, but all other OLs will be tossed in together.
  
• Some players will be listed twice.
  
• Finally, we're not factoring in redshirts, which will almost certainly occur.
  

As I said, this is far too early [but never too early if you love recruiting ...] so here is my subject-to-change breakdown of how I see numbers shaking out for next year's class. This is a completely unscientific look at the numbers, and I could be WAAAY off from what UT coaches envision currently. Still, think of it as an early-bird guide to get us thinking about what UT's needs will be entering this year's recruiting cycle. And, yes, I enjoy recruiting far too much.

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