TOP OF THE LISTS
Tennessee No. 1 in men’s basketball
KNOXVILLE — Eleven seasons after reaching the top spot in the Associated Press men’s basketball Top 25, Tennessee is back.
And just as then, Vanderbilt is the next foe awaiting the newly No. 1 Volunteers.
Tennessee moved into the top position in both the AP and coaches’ polls released Monday. It’s the only time the program has been ranked No. 1 except for the 2007-08 season, when a win over previously top-ranked Memphis moved the Vols from No. 2 to No. 1 on Feb. 25, 2008.
It was a short stay, as they traveled to Nashville and lost 72-68 to Vanderbilt, which was ranked 14th in the coaches’ poll and 18th in the AP list at the time. Tennessee fell to No. 4 the following week.
Tennessee has its fourth head coach since that season, which ended in the NCAA tournament Sweet 16 with a loss to Louisville. Also during that time, the Vols missed postseason play three consecutive years and had two other years in which they fell in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament.
Even the early part of current coach Rick Barnes’ tenure was rocky. He went 31-35 in his first two seasons, including a loss to UT-Chattanooga in the 2016-17 season opener. But last year’s team won 26 games before falling in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
The 2018-19 Vols are riding a 12-game winning streak, a 5-0 start to the Southeastern Conference schedule and a 16-1 record overall entering Wednesday’s game at Vanderbilt (9-8, 0-5) at 7 p.m. EST at Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville.
The Vols moved up two slots Monday after losses last week by Duke and Michigan. Tennessee received 48 of 64 first-place votes in the AP poll and 30 of 32 firsts in the coaches’ poll and are followed by Duke, Virginia, Gonzaga and Michigan in the AP top five. The Wolverines fell to No. 6 in the coaches’ poll, where Michigan State is fifth.
“I don’t think anything about it. I think we are going to be in a lot of games like this if we are ranked first, 21st or 41st,” Barnes said after Saturday’s three-point home win over
Alabama. “I think this league is like that where everyone is biting, and right now you are in the middle of conference season and this is something new to these guys.
“The guys that are playing right now built this thing. To be where we want to be, you have to deal with that, and is it nice to be ranked? Of course, because of the attention that comes to your program. You do that by staying focused on what is at hand. You do that by playing basketball and not letting the outside noise in.
“That is where you find out how close you are as a team, when you come unraveled. We are focused at the task at hand, and that is winning another basketball game.”
For the players, there’s obviously some gratification but not so much that they are losing sight of bigger objectives. Top scorer Grant Williams told 247Sports that his goal while at Tennessee is “to hang banners, not worry about where we’re ranked halfway through the season.”
But if there was allowed to be a moment of reflection, Monday was it.
“I honestly believe we have a great team, a great coaching staff, and we’re a really tough team to beat, so why not put us in the discussion of being the No. 1 team in the country,” point guard Jordan Bone said Saturday. “The transformation we’ve had over the years. When Coach Barnes got here four years ago, he tried to create a culture, different standards. It’s something we’ve worked on and progressed in every single year, and we’ve taken huge steps. It’s a huge testament to the hard work — the hard work the coaches put in as well as the players.
“Tennessee basketball hasn’t been ranked No. 1 in a long time. It’s definitely a good feeling, but we can’t be so locked in on that. We have to continue to stay hungry; we can’t be so focused on that, because it’s so fleeting, it can change super quick. But who doesn’t love to be No. 1? But we’re not focused on that. We’re focused on the next game, and we’re taking it day by day.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress. com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.