Tuesday night was a huge victory for the Volunteers moving down the final leg of the regular season. That much the team, fans and NCAA Tournament committee know.
However, there is still much work left to be done if the Vols (17-10, 9-6 SEC) hope to make a late season push into the Big Dance.
“We need to celebrate this win tonight and then do everything in our power to beat a talented Georgia team,” head coach Cuonzo Martin said postgame. “That is just the way it is. I cannot go any further than that because you just do not know.”
The Vols will travel to Athens over the weekend with the confidence of beating a Top 10 team and three straight road wins in their pocket, but Tennessee’s last loss came at the hands of the Bulldogs on Feb. 6 in Knoxville. UT allowed UGA to shoot 50 percent from the field in that contest and surrendered 24 points to Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
This time around the Volunteers are focused on stopping the Georgia guard.
“(Caldwell-Pope) kind of had his way with us last time,” Jordan McRae said. “Our defense is playing a lot better right now though so I think we’ll be ready.”
No doubt the Big Orange play on the defense and offensive end is burning closer to red-hot than orange right now, but Martin’s team was in a similar situation last season.
Over the final nine games of 2012, the Volunteers went 8-1 with a win against an eighth-ranked Florida team in Gainesville — sound familiar? The only loss coming down that stretch was at Alabama two games later, 62-50.
This year the Vols are riding a six-game winning streak with three left to play — at Gerogia, at Auburn and at home to finish the regular season against Missouri. The two things the Volunteers have in their favor at this point in the season opposed to last year is their RPI and possible conference record.
This year’s squad was ranked No. 57 in the land before the win Tuesday night, and with a win over Georgia on Saturday UT would jump up the ladder. Last year’s team finished No. 90.
Tennessee also has a chance to finish this year with a better conference record. Last season the Vols went 10-6. This year they have an opportunity to go 12-6 if they win out — the addition of Missouri and Texas A&M added conference games to the schedule.
All the tournament talk is just speculation at this point though. The fact remains that there are three regular season games and a conference tournament left to play. And after being left out last season, Tennessee is not getting ahead of themselves when it comes to tournament talk.
“Every game is crucial. You have to treat every game like it is your last game,” Trae Golden said. “You never know, so last year I think it really helped us to see the bigger picture.”
Will the Volunteers make the tournament? Who knows. There is still meaningful basketball left to be played. Are the Vols one of the best 68 teams in the country? Martin believes so and that’s what he will dwell on moving forward.
“When you look at this team and you say is this one of the 68 teams? Without a doubt, but you have to do your job,” he said. “For us I say we have to keep it out of someone else’s hands.”
— Austin Bornheim is a senior in journalism and electronic media. He can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @ABornheim.
