No major American sport loves its narratives, and views them more as absolutes, than men’s college basketball.
Mike Krzyzewski just can’t win the big one.
A freshman-led team will never cut down the nets.
The SEC will never be a legitimate basketball conference.
No major American sport loves doing more of a 180 when those narratives get ripped to shreds in March than men’s college basketball.
Coach K is the modern day John Wooden.
Carmelo Anthony and Anthony Davis are March icons.
The SEC may have put together the best conference in the history of college basketball.
When it comes to March and narratives that have yet to be flipped on their heads, everyone knows what Tennessee’s is.
Relatively speaking, the Volunteers have an extremely proud college hoops tradition. They’ve won 16 conference championships, advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament 11 times, and have more all-time wins than national championship-winning programs like Virginia, Georgetown and Marquette.
From “The Fearless Five” era to the “Ernie and Bernie Show” to the modern success under Bruce Pearl and Rick Barnes, there’s plenty for UT fans to thump their chests about.
The chest thumping comes to an abrupt halt when the topic of college basketball’s largest platform is brought up.
Find any list of “best college basketball teams to never make a Final Four” from any site during any time period, and Tennessee is certain to be at or near the top. The Volunteers have made the NCAA Tournament a highly respectable 27 times. Only BYU has heard its name called on Selection Sunday more times without playing in a Final Four.
Not only have the Volunteers never played in a national semifinal, but before 2024, they had a grand total of one Elite Eight appearance in program history (2010).
After a stunning Sweet 16 upset at the hands of Florida Atlantic in 2023, UT played to its seed level a season ago, playing impressively for three rounds before falling in a nip-and-tuck affair against top-seeded and eventual national runner-up Purdue. Even it was expected by most, the inability to get win No. 4 in the Big Dance once again attached itself to Rocky Top like a virus, plaguing the fan base for at least another 12 months.
The Vols, and their head coach, are once again a single victory away from finally getting healthy.
Despite previous stops at George Mason, Providence, Clemson and Texas, there might not be a coach in the country who better embodies the reputation of Tennessee men’s basketball than Rick Barnes.
Only three active coaches in Division-I have more career wins attached to their name than Barnes, who for decades has been widely regarded as one of the best defensive minds in basketball. When Barnes arrived in Knoxville in 2015, he took over a UT program that had won just one SEC tournament since 1979 and just a pair of regular season titles since 1982.
Under Barnes’ watch, the Volunteers have won four SEC titles, they’ve made the NCAA Tournament seven consecutive times, and they’ve advanced to the tournament’s second weekend in each of the last three years. True to Barnes’ reputation, they’ve ranked in the top five of Ken Pomeroy’s adjusted defensive efficiency rankings in five consecutive seasons.
But Barnes, like the program he now serves as the frontman for, has struggled too often in the games that matter more than all others.
He missed the NCAA Tournament just one time in 17 seasons at Texas, but his tenure was plagued by early losses in the tournament to lower-seeded teams and just a single trip to a Final Four. Perhaps most infamously, Barnes became known as the guy who couldn’t get a team with Kevin Durant out of the tournament’s first weekend in 2007.
The regular season success tempered by postseason disappointments followed Barnes to Knoxville. There was a buzzer-beating loss to Loyola in 2018, an overtime loss to Purdue in 2019, an upset loss to 12-seed Oregon State in 2021 and then to 11-seed Michigan a year later, and then the heartbreak against Florida Atlantic the year after that. While the upset losses have disappeared the last couple of years, critics are still quick to point out that Barnes is 1-13 all-time in the tournament when facing better-seeded opponents.
This could all be on the verge of going away forever.
On Friday night, Tennessee served up arguably its most impressive performance of the season on inarguably its biggest stage of the season. At least so far.
Facing a Kentucky team it had already lost two twice during the regular season, Barnes flipped the script. After allowing the Wildcats to dictate the pace and knock down 12-of-24 from three in both of the previous meetings, Barnes had his defenders sell out to run UK’s talented group of outside shooters off the three-point line.
Tennessee dared UK to be the tougher and more efficient team inside the arc. Their rivals to the North could not answer the bell.
Tennessee limited Kentucky to just 6-of-15 shooting from three, with most of those makes coming after the Volunteers were already holding a double-digit lead. UT also owned the glass on both ends, out-rebounding the equally-sized Wildcats by 10, including a 14-7 edge on the offensive glass.
Zakai Zeigler, Tennessee’s fourth-year floor general who played subpar games against Kentucky in the regular season, completely controlled the flow of the game. He finished with 18 points and 10 assists, and consistently cut off UK’s guards at the point of attack, keeping the Wildcats from effectively upping the pace.
The victory didn’t just guarantee that Tennessee would be headed to regional finals in back-to-back years for the first time in program history, it kept alive another streak that might be just as impressive to UT fans: Barnes has never spent a season with the Volunteers where he hasn’t beaten Kentucky at least once.
For longtime followers of a program that had been consistently beaten up by the kings of the SEC for decades, that’s almost impossible to believe.
Between Zeigler (an undersized point guard who has been plagued by injuries throughout his college career), Chaz Lanier (the North Florida transfer who has effectively stepped into the role left behind by All-American Dalton Knecht) and Jordan Gainey (perhaps the best non-starter in all of college basketball), the Volunteers have the three college stars most say you need to have in order to be a legitimate national title threat.
The Vols also combine perhaps the best team defense in the entire country with the best offensive numbers from a Barnes-coached team since 2019.
But … the narrative.
There is no Cinderella left standing at this year’s dance, and Tennessee’s presence is a part of that. That’s not to say that there isn’t something of a romantic, underdog quality about the Volunteers, the same kind that grabs the nation’s attention every year around this time.
The 5’9 point guard who has been plagued by injuries throughout his college career.
The North Florida transfer making good on his one shot on the big stage.
The 70-year-old head coach now three wins away from avoiding a potential “one of the best to never win a title” legacy.
The most successful program in college basketball history to never play in a Final Four.
The narrative is always the narrative until it isn’t.
The time for Tennessee to prove that might be now.