2014 NCAA Tournament Profile: Tennessee Volunteers
By Joe Nardone
Mar 15, 2014; Atlanta, GA, USA; Tennessee Volunteers forward Jeronne Maymon (34) celebrates with Tennessee Volunteers guard Josh Richardson (1) against the Florida Gators in the semifinals of the SEC college basketball tournament at Georgia Dome. Mandatory Credit: Paul Abell-USA TODAY Sports
Tennessee Volunteers
Record: (21-12, 11-7 SEC)
RPI: 41
BPI: 31
Conference: SEC
How They Qualified: At-large
Remember when everyone wanted to re-hire Bruce Pearl? Neither does anyone else as the Vols have now become the trendy pick to go dancing deep in the NCAA Tournament.
Tennessee isn’t known as a score-first type of team. In fact, their 71.3 points per game is good (bad?) enough to rank them as the 168th best offensive team in the country. Meaning there’s 167 offenses supposedly better than theirs.
It is worth noting, however, that as the season progressed so to do the Vols’ ability to compete against some of the better teams in the nation.
What You Need to Know
Leading Scorer: Jordan McRae (18.6 ppg)
Leading Rebounder: Jarnell Stokes (10.3 rpg)
Leading Passer: Jordan McRae (2.5 apg)
Bad Losses: Texas A&M (twice), Vanderbilt
Good Wins: Xavier, Virginia
What to Expect
Tennessee does find itself in a pretty good predicament to at least make it out of the dreaded First Four. With that being said, their lack of offense is a real concern. With only two players with an ability to score, and one of them (Strokes) having to rely too much on circumstance to get buckets, points are always at a premium for the Vols.
That doesn’t mean they can’t win a game or two. I just don’t buy into all of this Cinderella hype. Especially considering the fact that people wanted to bury their head coach just as little as two weeks ago.
Regardless, The Vols are going dancing in the NCAA Tournament!