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For the second time this season, Tennessee suffered a loss to Kentucky. The Volunteers went up to Lexington on Tuesday night a took their fifth loss of the season as the Wildcats pulled away late. Tennessee started slow, roared back to life, but couldn’t finish the job on the road yet again.
Kentucky went on to win 75-64, shooting 12-24 from three point range. Tennessee was just 3-18. It was Tennessee’s fifth conference loss of the season — their fourth loss of the year on the road.
“Way, way, way too many defensive breakdowns on our part,” Rick Barnes said of the loss. “Give Kentucky credit, they did it, but we had way too many defensive breakdowns on things that you can’t do there at the end of the game. And then I thought offensively we had a few guys that got too emotional, didn’t make really good decisions on the offensive end.”
The Volunteers had worked back to a projected No. 1 seed before the loss, but have now dropped to the 2-line according to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi. Florida moved up to a No. 1 seed in this projection, joining Auburn, Alabama and Duke.
— Joe Lunardi (@ESPNLunardi) February 12, 2025
Lunardi awarded the SEC with a whopping 13 bids, leading the way for all conferences. The Big Ten was second with ten.
Tennessee fell to No. 5 in the NCAA’s NET rankings following the loss. They’re now 4-4 on the road and 8-5 in Quad 1 games. Tennessee is also ranked fifth in Kenpom, still boasting the nation’s top rated defense.
The Volunteers have six games left on the regular season schedule, continuing with Vanderbilt this weekend. Tennessee gets the midweek off next week before travelling to No. 8 Texas A&M (Feb. 22). Road trips to LSU and Ole Miss remain, along with home games against No. 2 Alabama and South Carolina.
Tennessee sits 3.5 games back of the regular season conference lead, which currently puts them as the No. 7 seed in the loaded SEC Tournament.