Bracketology: Tennessee now fighting to keep No. 1 seed

Following the loss to Kentucky, NCAA Tournament projectors haven’t had the knee-jerk reaction that AP voters have had. Despite falling to 5th in the polls, Tennessee is still a firm No. 1 seed according to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi.

Tennessee moved from the South region to the Midwest region, which means a completely new set of potential opponents than what we’ve been seeing over the past couple of weeks.

Here’s Lunardi’s latest.

ESPN.com

A potential juicy Tennessee-Texas round two matchup is intriguing, considering Rick Barnes’ history there. This region also includes common opponents for Tennessee, like Louisville and Kansas. You can probably bet Tennessee would like another shot at the Jayhawks, who have since lost star big man Udoka Azubuike.

Tom Izzo’s Michigan State is never a team that you want to meet in March, but the Spartans are down Joshua Langford for the season and have looked plenty vulnerable in Big Ten play.

We’re now under a month until Selection Sunday, but Tennessee has plenty of big business to take care of. That starts with road trip to LSU this weekend. They’ll have a rematch with Kentucky the following weekend and still have to face Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Auburn. It’s going to be a packed final few weeks of the season for the Vols, who will have to fight to keep their No. 1 seed status.