A busy Saturday in college basketball pretty much went according to plan — evidence being that 16 of the 17 games featuring a team ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 poll was won by the favorite.
The lone exception was Tennessee vs. Kentucky.
The Vols trailed by as many as 20 points before losing 66-54 to the unranked Wildcats, who completed a regular-season sweep of UT in front of a big crowd at Rupp Arena. Once again, Tennessee struggled to generate offense. The Vols shot just 37.3% from the field, 22.2% from 3-point range and 28.6% from the free-throw line. It was the latest lackluster performance serving as a reminder that Tennessee is great enough defensively to beat Alabama, Kansas and Texas but shaky enough offensively to lose to Colorado, Vanderbilt and Florida.
All of those things have happened this season.
It’s why Tennessee has one of the more all-over-the-place resumes in the sport. The Vols own victories over the schools ranked second (Alabama), third (Kansas) and sixth (Texas) in Sunday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings, but are just 3-4 in Quadrant-2 opportunities. They are literally the only team in the top 40 of the NET that’s below .500 in Quadrant-2 games.
So what does all of this mean?
It means it’s not hard to imagine Tennessee advancing to the Final Four of the 2023 NCAA Tournament or losing to a lower-seeded team in the first round. Everything and anything seems on the table for the Vols, who are down to 16th in the Top 25 And 1 with a game at Texas A&M on tap for Tuesday.
Top 25 And 1 rankings
In: TCU | Out: Pitt
