Tennessee basketball has spent the offseason building a roster with Final Four ambitions, and that has plenty of people talking the Vols up as a top-10 team and a serious SEC threat. But one of the sport’s more popular analytics outlets is pumping the brakes a bit.
EvanMiya.com has Tennessee at No. 16 in its preseason rankings, which puts the Vols fourth in the SEC behind No. 1 Florida, No.
10 Alabama and No. 14 Texas.
The site sees Rick Barnes’ team in familiar terms on one side of the ball. Tennessee checks in at No. 13 nationally in defense, while the offense lands at No. 29 - a number that reflects the hope that the portal additions can give the Vols more punch.
Evan Miyakawa said in his preseason release: "CBB preseason projections are live at https://t.co/Zc0pvHlJ75!
Every team has a ranking based on if every player they want is eligible, as well as if none of the “in-limbo” players become eligible.
The top 30 teams are below, assuming they get every player they want to roster: pic.twitter.com/8chWyCF9d2"
The tempo number is another eye-opener. EvanMiya projects Tennessee at No. 296 out of 365 teams, making the Vols one of the slower teams in the country.
The top player on Tennessee’s roster in EvanMiya’s Bayesian Performance Rating is Loyola (Chicago) transfer forward Miles Rubin, who comes in at No. 140 nationally. After him are forward DeWayne Brown at No. 144 and Wake Forest transfer and projected leading scorer Juke Harris at No. 149.
Tennessee will get its first game action in a pair of exhibitions. The Vols host Xavier on October 15 in Food City Center before heading to Duke on October 20. The regular season opener is set for November 3 against Wofford.
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Lane Kiffin Still Has Tennessee Fans Doing The Unthinkable
Seven Tennessee fans made the trip to Oxford, Miss., on Saturday night, not to pull for Ole Miss but to make their feelings about Lane Kiffin unmistakable. The group bought seats for $600 apiece and showed up in Tennessee gear for the Rebels game against LSU, a small but pointed reminder that Kiffin still draws a reaction from Vols fans years after his brief Knoxville stint.
The scene had an extra layer of irony at halftime, with Ole Miss up 24-7 on LSU while Tennessee held a 21-3 lead over Kennesaw State back home. It was the kind of crossover moment that keeps Kiffin attached to both SEC scoreboard watching and Tennessees long memory, with a handful of fans still willing to spend real money to make the point in person. [Read more 🡒]