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What Tennessee Basketball has to do in the SEC Tournament

By Colton Pickard

LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY - MARCH 03: Yves Pons #35 of the Tennessee Volunteers celebrates during the 81-73 win against the Kentucky Wildcats at Rupp Arena on March 03, 2020 in Lexington, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY - MARCH 03: Yves Pons #35 of the Tennessee Volunteers celebrates during the 81-73 win against the Kentucky Wildcats at Rupp Arena on March 03, 2020 in Lexington, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
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Tennessee Basketball is getting ready for the SEC Tournament, and the Vols only have a few options if they want to continue their season.

The SEC Tournament is getting ready to kick off as play begins tomorrow, and Tennessee basketball will debut in the 2020 conference tournament on Thursday. The Vols will open as an eight-seed and will face nine-seed Alabama.

If the Vols can win its first game against Alabama, then they’re going to quickly face a difficult road after that. One-seed Kentucky will be waiting on Tennessee or Alabama in the Quarterfinals.

Four-seed Mississippi State or five-seed Florida will most likely be waiting on the winner of the Quarterfinal game in the Semifinals. After that, If the Vols miraculously win out and make it to the Championship, they could very well face a familiar opponent.

Two-seed Auburn could very well be back in the SEC Tournament Championship as long as they can get past three-seed LSU. Either way, Tennessee could face a familiar and unpopular opponent in the SEC Championship.

After this season, I don’t think anyone actually expects Tennessee to make it to the SEC Championship, nor get past Kentucky, but that is the path that the Vols face if they want to win the SEC Tournament.

At whatever point in the tournament where Tennessee’s run comes to an end, Rick Barnes and the Vols will likely begin preparing for a potential NIT Tournament appearance.

It seems like any NCAA Tournament possibilities were killed in the last month of the regular season, but the Vols could still make the Big Dance. If the Vols wanted to get into the NCAA Tournament over the NIT Tournament, then they’re going to have to win and win a lot.

The Vols are going to need a miraculous run in the SEC Tournament where they win it all if they want to make the NCAA Tournament, and that’s the only path that I can see where the Vols make it into the big tournament.

Other than that, the Vols are looking at possibly getting into the NIT Tournament, and a win against Alabama in the Second Round might be necessary for the Vols to get a bid into the NIT.

Next. Should Tennessee Basketball accept a NIT bid if offered?. dark

We’re only a couple of days away from what could be Tennessee’s final game of the season, and we could see a few players play their last minutes in Tennessee orange and white.

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