Gameday Today: SEC Championships and bracketology updates

If you read only one thing about the Vols today . . .

. . . make it this column from VolQuest’s Brent Hubbs, giving props to Rick Barnes for not only doing something special but also doing it the right way.

SEC Regular Season Championship

The last game of the regular season for the Vols basketball team is sold out. It’s not just that it’s the last home game of the season or that it’s senior night for James Daniel III or even that Tennessee’s attendance has been pretty good this season (9th in the country with an average of 15,779.)

It’s that the Vols are in the running for an SEC regular-season championship. Whether they earn it depends not only on whether they take care of business against Georgia at 6:00 p.m. Saturday at Thompson-Boling Arena, but also what Auburn does on their home floor against South Carolina the same day. And in case you’re thinking that a regular season championship doesn’t mean much to a team in a tournament sport, well, Lamonte Turner would like a word, please:

“We are definitely playing for a championship,” Turner said after scoring 12 points at Mississippi State. “That’s big. Coming into this game, we knew it was a must-win if we wanted to even have a chance at winning a regular-season championship. Yeah, it’s big for us.”

So yeah, both Grant Williams and Admiral Schofield implored Vol Nation to attend this weekend, and the fans responded.

Always listen to Ace Boogie. It will be only the third sell-out of the season, the other two being the North Carolina and Kentucky games.

SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament

Regardless of what happens Saturday, the Vols have at least locked up the coveted double-bye in the SEC Tournament, meaning they get to rest on Wednesday and Thursday and won’t play until Friday. If they earn the 1-seed, they’ll play at 1:00 p.m. ET on Friday, March 9, and if they are a 2-seed, they’ll play at 7:00 p.m.

Behind Tennessee and Auburn, the field is a heaping pile of poisonous snakes:

The NCAA Tournament

Regarding the Big Dance, the Vols are currently slotted firmly in as a 4- to 2-seed in the Bracket Matrix, with the 3-seed being the most prevalent.

ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has the Vols as a 3-seed in Wichita against Charleston and in a bracket with Nevada, Purdue, West Virginia, and Virginia.

CBSSports also has Tennessee as a 3-seed but playing against TCU in Dallas. Others of note in the Vols’ portion of the bracket there include Purdue, Clemson, and Kansas.

And SB Nation has the Big Orange as a 3-seed in Dallas against Murray State and in a bracket with Rhode Island, Purdue, Wichita State, and Xavier.

It seems that everybody is anticipating a Tennessee-Purdue rematch. Except for USAToday, who has the Vols as a 3-seed against Charleston in Dallas and in a bracket with Houston, North Carolina, Arizona, and Xavier.

Other Vols tidbits

The football team is getting to work:

🗣 WORK DAY#GBO pic.twitter.com/6g6rChiaUU

— Tennessee Football (@Vol_Football) February 28, 2018

Grad-transfer quarterback Gardner Minshew has chosen Alabama (raise your hand if you think an ECU QB is going to beat out both Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa), which means that Tennessee is likely now all-in with former Stanford QB Keller Chryst.

WVLT is reporting that the removal of that picture of Butch Jones from the Jumbotron is scheduled to start Monday, much to the relief of way too many people way too worried about the wrong things.

The Lady Vols open play in the Women’s SEC Tournament tonight at 7:00 ET against Auburn and are embracing expectations:

And look at that, the Vols baseball team is now 6-3 after a 9-1 victory over Arkansas Pine Bluff yesterday.