Tennessee just took its fifth loss of the season. It was a 91-67 beatdown at the hands of unranked Florida. Florida did not look like an unranked team on Saturday, and Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes spoke about AP poll voters about that fact after the game.
“It has baffled me all year where I don’t put anything in rankings. Florida has five losses, and I think four of them are to top 25 teams. They are defending National Champions. They played in Madison Square Garden against Connecticut, which everyone knows is a road game. They played Arizona in Las Vegas, which is basically a road game. That’s where people who get votes don’t really have an idea of who the best teams are,” Barnes said following the loss to the Gators, according to Isaac Edelman of FL Teams.
Tennessee came into the game ranked 21st in the nation according to the AP Poll. Meanwhile, Florida had just 11 points in voting, sitting in the other receiving votes category, and behind nine other teams in that unranked group.
As Barnes noted, Florida has lost to some quality teams. They opened the season with a seven-point loss to Arizona, which is ranked first in the nation currently. They also have losses to UConn, currently ranked fourth, and Duke, currently ranked sixth. Meanwhile, TCU is 11-5, and Florida lost by just four. They also lost by two on the road to Missouri, which is 11-5.
The loss to Missouri was the one that dropped them out of the AP Top 25 after being ranked the week previously. Rick Barnes knows that the rankings do not mean anything. He has been a coach in the college ranks since 1987-1988, his lone year at George Mason. He has also been to the tournament 29 times, but has never won the National Championship, with just one final four appearance.
That was in 2002-2003 when Barnes was at Texas. Their tournament would end at the hands of Syracuse, as they went on to win the national title. Barnes and Tennessee will look to rebound on Tuesday night at home against Texas A&M, another unranked team.
