Rick Barnes has never had a more clear path to the Sweet 16. Honestly, if winning the SEC Tournament championship was going to get Tennessee Basketball the No. 1 seed in the San Francisco Region, the Vols should be glad they lost to the Florida Gators on Sunday. Now, they’re headed to the Midwest Region as a 2-seed.
Selection Sunday revealed the Vols’ first-round NCAA Tournament game will be on Thursday against the No. 15 seed Wofford Terriers, and if that wasn’t easy enough, they get to play it in Lexington, Ky., just a couple of hours north. If they win, they’ll take on the winner between the No. 7 seed UCLA Bruins and No. 10 seed Utah State Aggies.
The next weekend’s slate of games for the Vols, the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight, will be in Indianapolis, Ind., just a few hours from Knoxville as well. They could face the No. 3 seed Kentucky Wildcats that weekend, which would be epic, and while UK swept them in the regular season, the Vols still match up well with them.
If they don’t play Kentucky in the Sweet 16 of March Madness, the Vols will either face the No. 14 seed Troy Trojans, No. 6 seed Illinois Fighting Illini or No. 11 seed Texas Longhorns or Xavier Musketeers. Against anybody but Kentucky or Illinois, they’d have more fans at the game.
Most importantly, though, the Vols are in the region with the No. 1 seed they match up best against, the Houston Cougars. Although Houston is a dangerous team, Tennessee at least has the starting five to compete with Houston’s starting five if the two meet in the Elite Eight, and in Indianapolis, UT would have more fans.
Other teams on that side of the bracket include the No. 16 seed SIU Edwardsville Cougars, No. 8 seed Gonzaga Bulldogs, No. 9 seed Georgia Bulldogs, No. 5 seed Clemson Tigers, No. 12 seed McNeese State Tigers, No. 4 seed Purdue Boilermakers and No. 13 seed High Point Panthers. These Vols could dismantle any of those teams.
Simply put, Tennessee is in the region with the easiest No. 1 seed and one of the two regions closest to home. The Vols also have the easiest collection of first-weekend opponents possible. A Final Four is now very much on the table, but in March Madness, anything can obviously happen.
