The Tennessee Volunteers could have as few as two and as many as nine games remaining this basketball season.
For now, the goal is simply to advance out of Friday’s Southeastern Conference tournament quarterfinals inside Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena.
Tennessee hasn’t reached the SEC semifinals since winning the 2022 tournament in Tampa, Florida, which marked the first time the Vols had claimed the league event since 1979. This year’s Vols (25-6) are seeded fourth after going 12-6 in the SEC regular season and will face 13th-seeded Texas (19-14), which advanced Thursday afternoon with a 94-89 upset of fifth-seeded Texas A&M (22-10) in double overtime.
The Vols were seeded first last March after winning the league’s regular-season race before promptly getting thumped 73-56 by ninth-seeded Mississippi State.
“It will be something that we talk about,” Vols associate head coach Justin Gainey said Thursday during a news conference in Nashville. “Last year, we made it to the (NCAA tournament) Elite Eight, but every game we play we want to win. It’s about winning championships, and this is the second tournament we have this season. We won down in the Bahamas, and it’s our intent to come in here and try and win this one.