NCAA Basketball top 25 power rankings: Tennessee and Villanova rise, Alabama falls

13. Tennessee (9-2)

Even though some of those contenders have stumbled in recent weeks, the SEC looks like it’s going to be a deep and fantastic league. While they were recently stumbling a bit, the recent play of Tennessee has firmly cemented them back in that conversation of top contender. Things have certainly been going much better for the Volunteers in the time since Rick Barnes has taken over the program.

They’ve suffered a few bitter losses where their offense let them down, dropping rough games against Villanova and Texas Tech, but the big wins more than make up for these struggles. Taking care of business against inferior foes, the Volunteers scored a 17-point win over North Carolina over a month ago before getting a huge win against Arizona this past week. John Fulkerson led the team with 24 points in a much needed victory to get the season back on track with conference play set to begin.

Playing true road games on a regular basis will of course be a different animal, as Tennessee’s only game of this type came at Colorado in early December. They sit #2 in defensive efficiency in the country and certainly boast the best defense in the SEC. The question becomes how they fare facing some of these tougher SEC offenses on a regular basis. The race for the SEC crown is going to be one of the most intriguing battles in the nation and these Volunteers can certainly make their case as one of the favorites.