Tennessee basketball will begin the season as a ranked team, landing at No. 18 in the preseason AP Poll on Monday afternoon. Rick Barnes enters season 11 in Knoxville, trying to keep his program’s momentum rolling with a completely rebuilt roster.
Maryland point guard transfer Ja’Kobi Gillespie will run the show for Barnes, while five-star freshman Nate Ament will do a little bit of everything. Several new faces, both via the transfer portal and the high school ranks, round out this roster. It’s up
to this staff to figure out how all of those puzzle pieces fit together, which will begin on October 26th with a big-time exhibition matchup against Duke, who landed at No. 6 in the poll.
The Associated Press voted Purdue as the No. 1 team in the country, followed by Houston, Florida, UConn and St. John’s. Tennessee will face Houston out in Las Vegas in the Player’s Era Championship tournament. The Volunteers will also face No. 11 Louisville and No. 17 Illinois in non-conference play.
On the SEC front, Kentucky checked in at No. 9, Arkansas at No. 14, Alabama at No. 15 and Auburn at No. 20.
Tennessee is set to open the season officially against Mercer on Monday, November 3rd.
- Purdue
- Houston
- Florida
- UConn
- St. John’s
- Duke
- Michigan
- BYU
- Kentucky
- Texas Tech
- Louisville
- UCLA
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- Alabama
- Iowa State
- Illinois
- Tennessee
- Kansas
- Auburn
- Gonzaga
- Michigan State
- Creighton
- Wisconsin
- North Carolina
