Conference play is where tournament hopefuls make or break their March dreams. In the SEC in 2022, however, this is much easier said than done. In Joe Lunardi’s latest Bracketology, the SEC is tied with the Big Ten, Big 12, and Big East with seven teams slated to be in the tournament, and Rick Barnes’ Tennessee Volunteers are sitting pretty on the four-seed line and average out in the five range in the overall bracket matrix. Things hadn’t looked so positively for the Vols just a few weeks ago, though.
Coming off their third loss — a beatdown at Kentucky — in their first five games in conference play, it seemed as if Tennessee was regressing to the middle of the pack in a loaded conference.