Given that Tennessee is unranked in basketball after getting pegged 18th in the preseason, and given that the Volunteers are tied for fifth in the Southeastern Conference standings after being picked to finish third, an argument can be made that this has been a mildly disappointing winter.
Then again, if the Vols had not lost double-digit leads in their two setbacks against Kentucky, they would be tied with Florida atop the SEC landscape.
The league’s biggest disappointment is Tennessee’s next opponent, Mississippi State, which has made three straight NCAA tournament appearances under coach Chris Jans but is under .500 in his fourth season. The Vols (17-7, 6-4) and Bulldogs (11-12, 3-7) will collide Wednesday night in Starkville, with ESPN2 televising the matchup at 9 Eastern.
“We’re not in a spot where we thought we would be, and not just in the SEC but overall,” Jans said Monday during a news conference. “We didn’t have a stellar nonconference portion of our season. It paled in comparison to the prior three years.
“We had a mini run to start SEC play to where we could fight our way back to where we wanted to be, and then it went the wrong direction. It’s been a struggle since then.”