The Final Four remains uncharted territory for the University of Tennessee men’s basketball program.
For the third consecutive season, UT was eliminated in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. The Vols were trounced by Midwest region No. 1 seed Michigan 95-62 Sunday in Chicago, falling one step shy of the elusive national semifinal appearance.
Tennessee dropped to 0-4 all-time in the Elite Eight, and UT’s 34 wins in the NCAA Tournament are the most for any team without a Final Four appearance.
“We certainly know what it takes to get here,” UT head coach Rick Barnes says. “Now we’ve got to figure out getting through to the next level, and it’s on this day, you’ve got to really be at your best.”
Tennessee (25-12) lost to a No. 1 seed in the Elite Eight for the third consecutive year, having been knocked out by Houston last season and Purdue in 2024. But this year’s team was likely the most surprising of the three appearances given the lower expectations.
The Vols entered the tournament as the No. 6 seed and weren’t talked about much in the discussion of contenders. They beat polarizing tournament darling Miami (Ohio) in the first round and then took out Virginia to reach the Sweet 16, where they defeated No. 2 Iowa State, which was missing its top player, to advance to the regional finals again.
Michigan was far superior, overwhelming UT all across the court to knock out the last remaining SEC team.
“We’ve got to shoot the ball better,” Barnes says. “We’re so inconsistent doing that. We still have to be better finishing around the rim. You’ve watched us all year and we missed too many of those shots. Obviously, our defense got us here. It really did. It’s no question. We’ve had games where we’ve struggled to score, but you’re playing against an outstanding team today that was scoring. But just simply, we all have to get better. We all have to keep working at it.”
Barnes committed to program
Barnes, 71, who agreed to a lifetime contract with the Vols in August, plans to return for his 12th season on Rocky Top. Asked if he was 100% committed to coming back after UT’s loss to Michigan, Barnes responded, “I am.”
Barnes is 257–121 overall and 15-8 in the NCAA Tournament during his 11-year tenure as UT’s head coach. His 15 tournament wins are seven more than any other coach in program history, and his eight appearances are two more. UT had only been to the Elite Eight once before his arrival.
The makeup of next year’s UT roster will depend on several factors, including the transitory nature of the transfer portal in this era of college basketball.
The Vols will lose four seniors, including Ja’Kobi Gillespie and Felix Okpara. Star freshman Nate Ament didn’t make any public declarations in the immediate aftermath of the loss, but it’s expected he will declare for the NBA Draft.
Ament played through ankle and knee injuries for the final few weeks of the season. The former top-five recruit averaged 17 points, 6.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game this season.
Rising juniors Bishop Boswell, JP Estrella and Cade Phillips, who missed this season due to a shoulder injury, might return for the Vols along with junior Jaylen Carey and freshmen Amari Evans and DeWayne Brown II.
Grateful for the opportunity
Gillespie had 21 points in the loss to Michigan. The Greeneville native started his college career at Belmont and played one season at Maryland before finishing at UT.
“I’m blessed to have the career I did,” Gillespie says. “I enjoyed every year. I’m forever grateful for Coach Barnes for just bringing me back home and allowing me to be the point guard of a great team. Just giving me this opportunity, I’m forever grateful for that.”
Barnes has reached the Final Four once, as the head coach at Texas in 2003, when the Longhorns lost to Syracuse in the national semifinals. Although he hasn’t been back since, he remains confident Tennessee can eventually end the streak and finally play on the final weekend.
“There’s a lot of different ways to get there,” Barnes says. “But if you want to break through, you’ve got to get here first. You’ve got to put yourself in position to do that.
“We’ve been able to get here three years in a row, and it’ll be hard to get back to winning games just in the tournament. That first game of the tournament is the hardest one. But our goal would be to keep getting back and kicking and hopefully we can knock the door down.”