Bracketology: Where Tennessee stands ahead of Selection Sunday

Tennessee advanced to Friday of the SEC Tournament, but that’s as far as the defending champs would get. Missouri took down the Volunteers yesterday afternoon in Nashville, 79-71. Kobe Brown’s 24 and D’Moi Hodge’s 26 were too much for Tennessee, as the Vols just kind of ran out of steam late in the second half.

Missouri moves on to play Alabama, while Vanderbilt and Texas A&M will settle the other side of the bracket. For Tennessee? They’re on to Selection Sunday.

The NCAA Tournament field will be set on Sunday evening after the last few conference tournaments wrap up. Surprisingly enough, Tennessee is still in pretty good standing with various bracketologist.

ESPN’s Joe Lunardi still has Tennessee as a No. 3 seed. Lunardi has Tennessee landing in a region with Kansas, Arizona, Xavier and Duke. The Volunteers are projected to play Southern Utah, currently.

CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm has Tennessee as a No. 4 seed. The Volunteers land in Purdue’s East Region here alongside of Marquette, Kansas State and Texas A&M.

SBNation’s Chris Dobbertean also has Tennessee as a No. 4, landing in Purdue’s region. Marquette, Baylor and TCU join the Volunteers in his projected East Region.

So through all of the struggles and injuries, a wild college basketball season has sort of kept Tennessee afloat. A strong resume built on wins over Kansas, Texas and Alabama continues to shine through, keeping Tennessee as a projected top 16 overall seed.

The Volunteers still rank 4th in the NCAA’s NET rankings, despite a 7-7 Quad 1 record and a 3-3 Quad 2 record.

CBS will have the selection show live on Sunday evening, with the action starting at 6 p.m. ET.