Tennessee’s place is the NCAA women’s basketball tournament has never been debatable – until now.
The Lady Vols were among the eight teams revealed Sunday as being under consideration for the final four spots in the 64-team field. The teams, referred to as “the debatable eight,” were announced in alphabetical order on ESPN’s Sportscenter.
The other seven were Arkansas, Auburn, Indiana, Ohio, Princeton, TCU and Central Florida.
Moments after the reveal, Princeton clinched an automatic berth by winning the Ivy League tournament.
This is new territory for UT, which has qualified for every tournament since the NCAA assumed jurisdiction in 1982. And it’s a nerve-wracking place to be.
“We’re talking about (a team’s) body of work,” said Rhonda Lundin Bennett, the Division I Women’s Basketball Committee Chair. “So things we’re going to be looking at are your conference record, your significant wins and losses, your strength of schedule and just comparing teams. So those are the things we’re looking at right now with Tennessee as well as with all teams.”
The tournament field will be unveiled Monday night on ESPN.
After an 83-68 loss to Mississippi State in the SEC tournament, Tennessee finished 19-12. It was 7-9 in the SEC with an extra win and loss in the conference tournament.
As of Monday morning, Tennessee’s RPI was 60 and its strength of schedule ranked 34th. The Lady Vols had four victories against top-50 RPI teams, including two over Auburn. But they also had damaging losses to Vanderbilt, Alabama and Arkansas.
Based on the “debatable eight” reveal, ESPN women’s basketball analyst Rebecca Lobo had Tennessee among her final four teams in the field, along with Auburn, Indiana and Central Florida.
Charlie Crème, who projects the tournament field for ESPN, had Tennessee in as a No. 11 seed in his final bracket late Sunday night. He had the Lady Vols third among his final four teams in the field.
The loss to Vanderbilt at Thompson-Boling Arena complicated the Lady Vols’ resume for multiple reasons. The Commodores’ RPI was in the 200s and the loss occurred on Feb. 28, allowing little opportunity for recovery before the tournament.
“My initial reaction (to that loss) was ‘Oh they’re toast,’ ‘’ Crème said on Friday. “Then I took a step back and thought there could be some scenarios where this works out for them.”
What has worked out for UT was such Power 5 conference contenders as West Virginia, TCU and Southern California all lost opening games in their respective conference tournaments.
Conversely, the results of other conference tournaments have raised UT’s anxiety level. Drake lost to Missouri State 94-79 Sunday in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament final, earning the MVC an extra bid. Mid-American Conference top seed Central Michigan was beaten by Buffalo in the MAC semifinals on Friday. Buffalo beat Ohio 77-61 in the final.
Arkansas’ run to the SEC tournament final interjected the Razorbacks into the tournament conversation. But Crème doesn’t think they can rise about losing eight of nine to end the regular season.