unbelievable: the key player of vols nation slap his coach.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – For the fifth time in 2023-24, the University of Tennessee men’s basketball team is in the top five of both major national polls, as announced Monday afternoon.
Tennessee (19-6, 9-3 SEC) ascended three spots and checks to fifth nationally in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll and jumped four places, up to fifth, in the USA TODAY Coaches Poll.
his is the 54th consecutive week the Volunteers are in the AP top 25, good for the third-longest streak in the country behind only Houston (80) and Kansas (59). That number is 17 weeks longer than the previous program high of 37. Additionally, Tennessee has claimed a top-10 spot in 27 of those 54 weeks, exactly half.
The Volunteers’ 10-week AP top-10 streak is solely the fifth-longest in program history. Of those five occurrences, three have come in the last six seasons under head coach Rick Barnes, who is in his ninth season at the helm.
Additionally, Barnes has now guided Tennessee to 52 AP top-10 rankings, good for 35.6 percent of its all-time total. Across his full 37-year career as a Division I coach, Barnes’ teams have now earned 150 AP top-10 rankings, all in the last 28 seasons (1996-2024).
Last week, Tennessee won back-to-back SEC games by a combined 64 points, marking the fourth time—third by the Volunteers—any team has done so in the last seven seasons (2017-24). First, Barnes’ team registered a 29-point decision, 92-63, Wednesday at Arkansas behind 23 points and 12 rebounds from junior forward Jonas Aidoo. Tennessee then beat Vanderbilt by 35, 88-53, Saturday afternoon at Food City
