With a loss to Kentucky, the Vols basketball team dropped from an all-time high No. 3 to No. 7 in the Associated Press poll released today.
The top six are Memphis, Kansas, Duke, North Carolina, UCLA and Georgetown. The Vols received 339 voters points, just ahead of Michigan State with 320.
The Vols lost to Kentucky 72-66 Tuesday at Rupp Arena. Tennessee came back to beat Georgia 85-69 Saturday at Thompson-Boling Arena. The fell for fifth to eighth in the USA Today/ESPN poll.
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Comments » 19
HotlantaVol writes:
The only ranking that matters comes out in April. Keep 'em rollin' BP!!
CoverOrange writes:
We looked bad on national TV last week. Gotta make up for it tomorrow night.
GreerVol22 writes:
Thats about right...give or take a couple. Still a bit early for polls to mean much as the meat of conference play is upon everyone.
Expect a close L to Memphis, a split with Florida and an L with Miss State. 9-3 here on out.
bernardking writes:
GreerVol..you're funny. I don't expect a loss at Miss st and I am being realistic. Miss St will have to play their best game of the year and we must play lousy at the same time.....don't expect them to lose to Miss St. I do expect a close game with Memphis, probably a loss...and Florida doesn't have the perimeter players to hang with us in either game. I would think we might lose at Alabama tomorrow night before we lost to Miss St on Sat. 9-3 might be right, but I think we will lose elsewhere in SEC
GoVol writes:
Proud of the Vols BB team so far. I think we need to do a better job of the guards pentrating when we run our half court offense. Ramar Smith & Tyler Smith can do it, they just don't do it often enough. It seems we produce better when we are running versus half court offense. Let's beat the snot out of Bama, aka the crimson jelly, tomorrow night!!!
jdcvols#230433 writes:
mcbrim1998, you beat me to it. Miss ST and FLA are on FIRE. Both bombed their opponents this weekend and we know Vandy and Ol'Miss are decent teams. We have a dogfight on our hands the next three games.
JAJUAN writes:
Agreed- The only rankings that matter are after the MADNESS
volinky writes:
At the end of the day, Rupp Arena is a tough place for an SEC win. I was there. The atomsphere is tough to deal with for an opposing team, espicially with a national TV audience and with UK in a desperate need for a win.
drone#208075 writes:
Goooo VOLSSSSSS!!!!! I'll be the Orange dot in the sea of crimson tomorrow night. I'm going to leave my all and raise some he!! in Coleman. Vols - you need some inspiration - look for the white haired orange clad crazy directly across from your bench. Plan on not being able to talk for at least 2 days. Beat BAMA!!!!
Hunter writes:
Greer, as usual you are on point. Those were the three losses I saw for us in the New Year - I wasn't expecting to lose the game in Rupp....
That gives us 5 losses going into the SEC Tourney. Our history there indicates we'll have 6 losses going into the NCAA tournament as a #2 seed, which would be fine by me.
dfreeman writes:
mcbrim1998 - We have beaten better Florida teams with less talent!! They are hot, but like us they will hit a bump in the road.
johnlg00#206211 writes:
Wow! Except for bernardking (love your screen name, BTW(;-)) not giving much respect to a very strong MSU team and a young, hungry, talented FLA team, this was about the highest percentage of reasonable posts I have seen on a thread in a while! Unless we come out on fire every night, we will lose a couple more this year, but that's OK. If everybody stays healthy and focused, we will have as good a chance as anyone in the Big Dance. For the immediate future, let's not overlook Bama. It's great to be a VOL fan! CBP rules!
Volfan1 writes:
Florida WON'T beat us either time. Yes, they are good. Yes, they are well-coached. But they do not have the half-court, man up, in-your-face defense to stop us. I live in Florida, and know a fair amount about them.
They prefer a frantic style of play. We can run with them. Lofton seems to have found his shot, so they can't zone us, as Georgia found out.
Our depth, experience, full court pressure, and talent could wear down Florida's youth by game's end.
They do have a great assist maker/passer in Calathes. But I don't know if he can do it alone for the entire game.
As long as we don't settle into a Kentucky-like daze like we did last week, we'll be ok the rest of the year.
BigOrangeInCarolina writes:
Why would we lose to Alabubba?
pdhuff#552644 writes:
Greevol22 3:23 Agree with the 7th. About right and if we don't hit the boards 3-5 more Ls coming.
Just beat Bama. Fla and MSU will be tuff!
99gator writes:
florida is talented and getting better.....
but.....
tenn is better. florida also likes to play at tenn's pace. so, it's a bad matchup for florida. to play a better team at the style they like to play is usually bad news.
i think tenn takes two from florida
murrayvol writes:
Agreed 99gator. It's the least we could do after September.
Couchdummy writes:
How funny!! "Vols FALL to #7 in AP poll!" LMAO! Think how that would have sounded a few years ago.
johnlg00#206211 writes:
BOinNC, Bama has Richard Hendrix in the middle, a low-post beast who will be a future NBAer. It has Alonzo Gee, a quick but also strong wing player with a great outside shot. Bama is also playing at home, where we have struggled in the past, and they need to beat us to partially salvage a disappointing season.
99gator, thanks for the vote of confidence, but I think young Gator talent on the home floor, plus the revenge factor from us taking three out of the last four from them will give them an edge.
Can we win these? Sure, if we are able to play our game with focus and intensity. But as I have said probably way too many times, everything has to fall into place for us to win. The defense, except against good low post players (Hendrix of Bama, Speights of FLA), is a given. Our outside shooting, free-throw shooting, and rebounding are not. Also, it is easier for a slower team to slow down a faster team than it is for the faster team to consistently force the tempo. Remember, as even CBP has said, we are not turning other teams over the way we have in the last two years. Not trying to be a pessimist here, but we can't expect to win just by showing up, and no one should be shocked if we should lose a few more this year.
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