Generally, in college basketball, if you return all but one starter, including your leading scorer, from a Power Five team that had a winning record, and then if you add a top five recruiting class in, you have a top 10 caliber team. Tennessee basketball is in that situation, and it’s why a wave of predictions came out with lots of hype behind them for next year.
However, those predictions are still underrating Rick Barnes’ sixth team on Rocky Top. Last week, a couple of predictions had UT outside of the top 10. Andy Katz said the Vols should finish No.