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After a week of hype and potential one seed talk, Tennessee failed to show up in Tuscaloosa last night. They were taken apart by the Crimson Tide, suffering a 28 point loss — easily their worst of the season. It was a deflating moment that took the wind out of everyone’s sails.
According to Rick Barnes, it was a simple lack of effort from the Volunteers.
All things considered, Tennessee remains in a pretty good spot still. That was confirmed today as the NCAA Tournament selection committee put Tennessee inside of their top 16 seeds. Tennessee landed as a four seed and the 13th seed overall.
For those that don’t know, this is essentially college basketball’s version of the Tuesday night college football playoff rankings release. Here’s how the bracket would look.
that’s one way to sell tickets in the West pic.twitter.com/gZyIoaZd4w
— @GrantRamey (@GrantRamey) February 11, 2018
Here’s the full top 16 field. Tennessee’s top shelf schedule is the reason they remain on this list after yesterday.
No. 1: Virginia
No. 2: Villanova
No. 3: Purdue
No. 4: Xavier
No. 5: Auburn
No. 6: Kansas
No. 7: Duke
No. 8: Cincinnati
No. 9: Clemson
No. 10: Texas Tech
No. 11: Michigan State
No. 12: North Carolina
No. 13: Tennessee
No. 14: Ohio State
No. 15: Arizona
No. 16: Oklahoma
After last night, we needed a bit of a pick-me-up. I still think this team will be fine. They’ve got a fairly easy schedule to round out the regular season, offering a few weeks to right the wrongs that we saw against Alabama.