After a tough road loss in Lexington, Tennessee basketball has slipped out of the AP Top 25. The Vols, who came into the weekend ranked No. 25, were edged out by Kentucky in a 74-71 thriller that not only handed them a second loss to the Wildcats this season but also dropped them from the national rankings. Kentucky, meanwhile, took their place in the poll, sliding into that No. 25 spot after completing the season sweep of their SEC rival.
Tennessee still received some recognition in the latest polls - 26 votes in the AP and 10 in the USA TODAY Coaches Poll - but it wasn’t enough to hold onto a ranking. The SEC remains well-represented, though, with Florida (No.
14), Vanderbilt (No. 19), Arkansas (No. 21), and now Kentucky all sitting in the Top 25.
What will sting for Tennessee is how the loss played out. For the second time this season, the Vols built a sizable lead against Kentucky - this time 14 points inside Rupp Arena - only to see it slip away.
It mirrored their earlier collapse in Knoxville, where they blew a 17-point advantage in what became an 80-78 loss. Two games, two double-digit leads, and two gut-punch defeats to the same team.
Head coach Rick Barnes didn’t mince words after Saturday’s game.
“It’s the kind of game we expected,” Barnes said. “Our guys are really disappointed.
We think that we are as good as anybody that we play on any given night. But we can’t make the mistakes we made.
And yet we need some of those baskets at the rim to take the pressure off the perimeter guys. We’ve got to get some of them.”
Despite the weekend setback, there was at least one bright spot for the Vols last week - and his name is Nate Ament.
The freshman forward exploded for 28 points in Tennessee’s 84-66 win over Ole Miss in Knoxville earlier in the week. Even more impressive? He scored 26 of those in the second half, helping extend what was then a four-game winning streak.
Ament followed that performance by tying his career high with 29 points against Kentucky. He was efficient and fearless, going 10-of-17 from the field, 4-of-6 from deep, and 5-of-6 at the line.
In fact, over a 40-minute stretch spanning the second half of the Ole Miss game and the first half at Kentucky, Ament poured in 45 points. That’s not just a hot streak - that’s a breakout.
For the week, he averaged 28.5 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 3.5 assists, shooting a blistering 59.4% from the floor, 60% from three, and over 81% at the stripe. Barnes has been high on Ament all season, and his postgame comments made it clear that confidence hasn’t wavered.
“I’ve said all year, I really don’t care what anybody else said, I wouldn’t trade Nate for anybody in the country because I think he’s been good all year,” Barnes said after the win over Ole Miss. “I knew it would have taken some time to figure out the physicality part of it, like any freshman.”
Barnes also pointed to a turning point in Ament’s mindset - a moment of mental reset before Tennessee’s game at Florida.
“He settled in really prior to going to Florida, where you could tell he was pressing and maybe a little bit disappointed,” Barnes said. “I told him prior to that game, ‘You’ve got nothing to be disappointed about.
You’re trending in the right direction. Just play one play at a time and get on to the next one.’
And since that game, Florida, he is just a totally different person mentally, the way he’s approached the game and sees it.
“So that second half was something that, I think if you go back to the time that we started recruiting him, that none of us would really be surprised by.”
Now, the Vols will look to regroup and close out their two-game road trip with a bounce-back win. They’ll head to Starkville on Wednesday night to face Mississippi State at Humphrey Coliseum.
Tipoff is set for 9 p.m. ET on ESPN2.
After that, Tennessee returns home to Thompson-Boling Arena to host LSU on Saturday - a chance to get back on track in front of their home crowd and build some momentum heading into the back half of SEC play.