Photo By Andrew Ferguson/Tennessee Athletics

Tennessee basketball’s seed is set for next week’s SEC Tournament. The Vols are the five-seed, failing to earn a double-bye for the first time since the 2022-23 season.

Rick Barnes’ 11th Tennessee team will begin play at the SEC Tournament at 3:30 p.m. ET on Thursday afternoon. They will face either the 12-seed Auburn or 13-seed Mississippi State.  If Tennessee wins its first game, they will face four-seed Vanderbilt in the quarterfinals.

With two wins in two games to start the tournament, Tennessee will face SEC Regular-Season Champion Florida in Saturday’s semifinal round. The Vols’ 91-67 loss at Florida earlier this season was their most lopsided loss of the season.

Tennessee finished the regular season with a 22-10 (11-7 SEC) record. The Vols tied for fourth place in the SEC standings along with Vanderbilt. Tennessee and Vanderbilt split the two regular season meetings this season with the Vols winning in Nashville before Vanderbilt won in Knoxville to close the regular season.

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The Vols’ win at Vanderbilt marked their eighth win in nine games. At that time, Tennessee seemed to be turning a corner and looked like a near lock for a double-bye in the SEC Tournament. Instead, Tennessee dropped three of its final four games to close the regular season and finish outside the top four in the SEC standings.

Tennessee played the last 2.5 games of that four game stretch without star Nate Ament which certainly played a major role in its struggles. The star freshman is battling a right leg injury but Barnes expressed optimism Saturday that Ament would be back for the SEC Tournament.

While the bracket is not fully set, both Arkansas and Alabama will be the top two seeds on the other side of the bracket. With a win over Auburn tonight, Alabama will be the two-seed and Arkansas will be the three-seed. If Auburn upsets Alabama in Tuscaloosa then Arkansas will be the two-seed and Alabama will be the three-seed.

The SEC Network will broadcast Tennessee’s SEC Tournament opener on Thursday before ESPN broadcasts the rest of the Vols’ matchups in the event.