NCAA Basketball: 5 early Bracketology storylines for 2022-23 season

NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 8: The NCAA Basketball Tournament Selection Committee meets on Wednesday afternoon, March 8, 2017 in New York City. The committee is gathered in New York to begin the five-day process of selecting and seeding the field of 68 teams for the NCAA MenÕs Basketball Tournament. The final bracket will be released on Sunday evening following the completion of conference tournaments. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) /

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Tennessee Volunteers Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports /

4. Tennessee will be good, but maybe not that good

On the flip side of Virginia, I wanted to look for a team that seems to be a preseason top-4 seed that could take a tumble by the time Selection Sunday rolls around. For me, that team this season may be Rick Barnes’ Tennessee Volunteers. The defense will once again be the calling card of the Vols with the senior leadership of Santiago Vescovi, Josiah Jordan-James, Uros Plasvic, and Olivier Nkamhoua, but the offense will be the question.

Sophomore Zakai Zeigler is the engine that makes the Vols go, but he and Vescovi must improve on their 3 turnovers per game and 39% from the field during last season. Tyreke Key, a transfer from Indiana State, and five-star forward Julian Phillips should help in that regard. Whether the offense has enough to take some pressure off of the defense will be a major question as will the lack of experience coming off the bench outside of Plasvic and Key who is new to the program.

I’m not saying that Tennessee will be bad, on the contrary, I think they will be consistently good again, there are just too many questions outside of the defense to warrant a high seed. If the turnover issues don’t improve in the backcourt and struggle to the tune of last year’s 73 points, a seed in the 5-7 range could be in the offing.

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