Lady Vols basketball moved up four spots to the No. 12 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament committee’s second in-season reveal of the top 16 seeds on Thursday, making it as the last No. 3 seed.
UCLA, Texas, Southern Cal and Notre Dame were the No. 1 seeds, with the Bruins the No. 1 overall. The Fighting Irish are the No. 1 seed in Tennessee’s region followed by South Carolina as the No. 2 seed and Oklahoma as the No. 4 seed. The Lady Vols (21-6, 8-6 SEC) faces Kentucky (21-5, 10-4) on the road Thursday (7 p.m. ET, SEC Network). The Wildcats were the No. 4 seed in Spokane 3.
Tennessee was the No. 16 seed in the first top-16 seed reveal on Feb. 16, making it the last No. 4 seed.
The top 16 seeds host the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. The official bracket will be revealed on Selection Sunday on March 16.
The Lady Vols are the only program to never miss an NCAA Tournament. They have been a top-16 seed in three of the last four seasons, with last year as the exception when Tennessee was a No. 6 seed.
Lady Vols basketball’s NCAA Tournament resume
The Lady Vols have three ranked wins against Iowa, UConn and Alabama. They also have seven wins over teams in the top 40 of the NCAA NET rankings – UConn, Ole Miss, Alabama, Florida State, Iowa, Richmond and Mississippi State. All six of Tennessee’s losses are to teams ranked in the top 25 of the NET.
Tennessee stayed at No. 11 in the NCAA NET rankings for second straight week. It is 6-6 in Quad 1 games, 4-0 in Quad 2 games, 2-0 in Quad 3 and 9-0 in Quad 4. Five of the Lady Vols losses were to teams ranked in the top 10 at the time – Oklahoma, Texas, South Carolina and LSU twice – and all of their losses were by single digits.
Tennessee is now 5-3 on the road with wins over Texas A&M, Arkansas, Missouri, Florida and Memphis and is 3-0 in neutral-site matchups with wins over Iowa, Richmond and Tulsa.
Cora Hall covers University of Tennessee women’s athletics. Email her at cora.hall@knoxnews.com and follow her on X @corahalll. If you enjoy Cora’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that allows you to access all of it.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Tennessee women’s basketball No. 3 seed in March Madness bracket reveal
