Tennessee’s successful 2024-25 basketball season ended with a thud, as the Volunteers were no match for Houston in the Elite Eight round of the NCAA tournament.
The two teams met again Tuesday night, and Tennessee’s 2025-26 season went from promising to legitimate as the No. 17 Vols toppled the No. 3 Cougars 76-73 at the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas. The Vols improved to 7-0 after defeating the same program that routed them 69-50 in Indianapolis in late March.
“I had heard the chatter that we hadn’t played anybody, but we had,” Vols coach Rick Barnes said afterward in a news conference. “We had a great scrimmage against Ohio State, and we had a great exhibition game against Duke. We knew after both of those that if we could continue to grow that we had a chance, because we have a group of guys who really like each other.
“They work hard every day, and more and more guys are starting to understand their roles.”
Tennessee’s win, coupled with Monday’s 85-60 rout of Rutgers, earned the Vols a spot among the top four teams in this unique but confusing 18-team event. Whether they will compete in Wednesday night’s first-place game or the third-place game was not immediately known due to a point differential system being used.