KNOXVILLE — The Tennessee Volunteers aren’t exactly rolling into this week’s Southeastern Conference basketball tournament in Nashville.
Tennessee’s 86-82 loss to Vanderbilt inside the Food City Center on Saturday afternoon marked its third setback in four games. The No. 23 Vols have played two straight contests without their most dynamic player, five-star freshman forward Nate Ament, with senior point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie pressing as a result during his 5-of-22 shooting performance against the No. 24 Commodores.
“We didn’t accomplish what we wanted to do in the regular season,” Tennessee 11th-year coach Rick Barnes said. “We’ve got the conference tournament left and the NCAA tournament, but by now we should really, truly have an identity of who we are.”
The Vols finished a 21-10 regular season that contained an 11-7 record in SEC play. They are seeded fifth in the 16-team league tournament at Bridgestone Arena and will begin play Thursday afternoon around 3 Eastern against the winner of Wednesday afternoon’s matchup between 12th-seeded Auburn (16-15, 7-11) and 13th-seeded Mississippi State (13-18, 5-13).
Vanderbilt (24-7, 11-7) snagged the fourth seed with Saturday’s win and the double-bye into Friday’s quarterfinals that comes with it. The Commodores earned the tiebreaker over Tennessee due to their 1-0 mark against Alabama and with the Vols going 1-1 against the Crimson Tide.