It’s time to recognize Tennessee basketball as a legitimate Final Four threat

Tennessee pulled off its first regular-season sweep of Kentucky since 1999 with a 61-59 toppling of the Wildcats Tuesday night in Lexington. The victory also gave the Vols their first win inside Rupp Arena since 2006.

The triumph was the latest piece of evidence in the case for Tennessee being more than just a plucky overachiever avoiding the harsh reality bound to come crashing down on it.

Maybe it’s because the Vols haven’t been to the NCAA tournament since 2014. Maybe it’s because they were picked to finish 13th in the 14-team SEC before the start of the season. Whatever the reason, Rick Barnes’ Volunteers are rarely referred to as legitimate threats to crash the Final Four or go two steps further and win the national title.

Nothing about Tennessee’s resume as we head into the heart of the regular season’s final month suggests that it should be so readily dismissed.

The Volunteers own neutral court wins over Purdue and NC State that look even better now than they did at the time, and they played a highly competitive contest against top-ranked Villanova in the Battle 4 Atlantis championship game. They have zero losses to teams outside the top 40 in the current RPI, they have multiple wins over a (for the moment) ranked Kentucky team, and they’re riding a six-game winning streak despite the SEC being stronger in the middle than it’s been in years.

If there’s been an Achilles’ heel for Tennessee so far this season, it’s an inability to put teams away and pull out close victories. They exorcised those demons Tuesday night in a game where neither team led by more than four points.

Lamonte Turner’s clutch three-pointer with just 28 seconds to go put the Vols on top by one and proved to be the decisive shot of the game. Tennessee would get a steal on the other end, which led to a fast-break dunk, and then committed a perfect foul with less than a second to go to eliminate the possibility of Kentucky sending the game into overtime at the buzzer.

It was the type of elite late-game execution that eluded each of Barnes’ first two teams in Knoxville. Those Volunteer squads produced a combined overall record of 31-35 and both finished with a losing record in SEC play. With no five-star orange-clad hero coming to town to save the day, it’s understandable why the media pegged the Vols to be better than just one other team in the conference.

It’s time for that stigma to be permanently shed now.

Tennessee is No. 7 overall in Ken Pomeroy’s rankings, it ranks fifth in the country in adjusted defensive efficiency, and it entered Tuesday’s game scoring a terrific 1.16 points per possession in conference contests. The Vols have one of the top frontcourt players in the SEC in Grant Williams (16.2 ppg), which is something you expect to see from the program. What you don’t expect is a myriad of players — Admiral Schofield, Lamonte Turner, James Daniel and Jordan Bowden to name a few — with the ability to light it up from the outside.

Tremendous defense, a diverse and effective offense, and a team playing the best basketball of their season at the perfect time. Forget what you thought in November, Tennessee is a legitimate Final Four threat.