An unexpected early first-round exit from the NCAA Tournament did not drop Tennessee basketball from the Top 20 in the final rankings of the season. One day after the Villanova Wildcats captured their second national championship in three years, the Vols finished a season in the Top 25 for the first time since 2014.
After starting the year picked to finish 13th in the SEC, Rick Barnes’s team finished as the highest ranked team of anybody in the conference in the final Coaches Poll. The Vols came in at No. 16, one spot ahead of the Kentucky Wildcats, who finished No.