{"id":534505,"date":"2026-01-13T19:55:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T19:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/534505\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T19:55:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T19:55:12","slug":"bracketology-where-tennessee-basketball-lands-after-getting-blown-out-by-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/534505\/","title":{"rendered":"Bracketology: Where Tennessee Basketball Lands After Getting Blown Out by Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rockytopinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Rick-Barnes-\u2014-Tennessee-Basketball.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-178300\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"Tennessee Basketball\" width=\"612\" height=\"396\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Rick-Barnes-\u2014-Tennessee-Basketball-300x194.jpg\"\/><\/a>Photo via Tennessee Athletics<\/p>\n<p>With a 1-2 record in conference play over the last week, Tennessee Basketball has taken a one-spot slide in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/espn\/feature\/story\/_\/page\/bracketology\/ncaa-bracketology-2026-march-madness-men-field-predictions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Joe Lunardi\u2019s latest bracketology report<\/a> from ESPN. The Vols moved from being projected as a 5-seed in the Midwest Region to being a 6-seed in the West Region.<\/p>\n<p>Lunardi\u2019s projection has Tennessee taking on 11-seed Miami-OH in the first round, with a potential matchup against 3-seed Illinois or 14-seed Wright State in the second round. These games are tagged to take place in Buffalo.<\/p>\n<p>Other notable teams in Lunardi\u2019s West Region projection include 1-seed Arizona, 2-seed Gonzaga, 3-seed Illinois, 4-seed Florida, 5-seed Louisville, and 8-seed Auburn.<\/p>\n<p>Tennessee has seen three of those teams already this season, with losses against Illinois and Florida and a win over Louisville. The Vols will also host Auburn later this month on Jan. 31 in Knoxville.<\/p>\n<p>More From RTI:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rockytopinsider.com\/2026\/01\/13\/nate-ament-slides-down-mock-draft-still-remains-in-the-projected-top-10\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Nate Ament Slides Down Mock Draft, Still Remains in the Projected Top 10<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The 6-seed projection for Tennessee isn\u2019t new this season, but it is the first time that we\u2019ve seen it in a while. The Vols have been tabbed as a 5-seed in Lunardi\u2019s last four projections, but did hold the 6-seed spot in mid-December following a three-game losing streak to Kansas, Syracuse, and Illinois. The Vols\u2019 big win over Louisville propped them back to a 5-seed before the end of the month.<\/p>\n<p>Tennessee has a chance to get back in the winning column with a game on Tuesday night against Texas A&amp;M, and fortunately for the Vols, the game is in Knoxville. Rick Barnes\u2019 squad has a perfect 9-0 record in home games this season, but has really struggled away from the Food City Center. The Vols have a 0-3 record in true road games and a 2-2 record in neutral site games so far this season.<\/p>\n<p>Following home games against Texas A&amp;M (Tuesday) and Kentucky (Saturday) this week, Tennessee will close out the month with a road game at Alabama on Jan. 24, a road game at Georgia on Jan. 27, and a home game against Auburn on Jan. 31.<\/p>\n<p>Tennessee will host Texas A&amp;M at 7:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday night in the Food City Center. Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for more Tennessee Basketball coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo via Tennessee Athletics With a 1-2 record in conference play over the last week, Tennessee Basketball has&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,10872,1919,12161],"class_list":{"0":"post-534505","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bracketology","10":"tag-tennessee-basketball","11":"tag-tennessee-vols"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115889552056331247","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}