It was a bittersweet season for Tennessee basketball. Matching their all-time total of 31 wins, beating the No. 1 team in the nation and reaching No. 1 themselves for just the second time in school history were certainly things to celebrate.
However, winning no SEC regular season or tournament championship and coming up short in the Sweet 16 to finish 31-6 were all drawbacks for Rick Barnes’s team. Even spending four weeks at No. 1 can’t nullify that, especially when the last No. 1 ranked Vols team at least won the SEC regular season championship.
The crazy part is Tennessee basketball was maybe one win away from being the most accomplished in school history, and two would have definitely put them there.