After a 2024-25 season where the SEC was one of the most dominant single college basketball conferences ever, the 2025-26 version of the best league in the country has been a bit inconsistent. Sure, Florida has evolved into a machine just a year removed from winning a national title, but the rest of the league has had plenty of ups and downs this season.
On Saturday, Tennessee showed both sides of the coin of what it has been so far this season. Rick Barnes and company played great for most of the game at home against Alabama before blowing a late lead and losing a 71-69 heartbreaker. Alabama didn't have a lead until the final minute of the game, when a clutch Labaron Philon bucket gave the Crimson Tide the win.
The loss was a microcosm of a Tennessee season that has been defined by inconsistency. After the game, Barnes talked about what has kept his team from ascending to the top tier of the SEC this season, via Wynton Jackson of the Knoxville News Sentinel.
“It's not the blown leads, it's playing 40 minutes,” Barnes said. “That's what it is. It's being able to play for 40 minutes. You expect runs. Basketball is a game of runs at times, but it doesn't have to be. They're like that because it's really hard for players to be able to maintain their focus . . .
“I can say some guys are learning to play these tight games, but we played enough of them. We played enough of them that we ought to be able to go on to the next possession regardless of what happened and we haven't been able to do that.
“For us to be great, we have to be like that for 40 minutes.”
For now, the Vols are currently floating in the No. 5-6 range in terms of projected seed in the NCAA Tournament, but they can't afford to let too many more opportunities like Saturday's slip before they start to fall down the seed lines.
Tennessee closes its regular season with games against South Carolina and Vanderbilt before heading into the SEC Tournament.
