As Tennessee Basketball prepares for its regular season opener against Wofford on Nov. 3, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has come out with a new bracketology projection right before the start of the season. Bracketology projections will move from monthly to weekly when the season starts, and will then ramp up even more once conference play hits in January.

Lunardi has Tennessee Basketball as a 4-seed in the East Region (New York), facing 13-seed UNC Wilmington in the first round of action from Spokane, Washington. The Vols’ second-round projection is particularly interesting, though. Tennessee is slated to take on either 5-seed Michigan in a rematch of last year’s Elite Eight, or the winner of 12-seed Creighton/12-seed New Mexico. The Vols previously faced Creighton in the Sweet 16 of the 2024 tournament.

Other notable teams in Lunardi’s projected East Region include 1-seed Duke, who squashed Tennessee in a preseason matchup seven days ago, along with 2-seed UConn, 3-seed Iowa State, 6-seed Nebraska, 7-seed Ohio State, and 8-seed Texas A&M.

Tennessee is one of 12 teams from the SEC in Lunardi’s final preseason bracketology, alongside 1-seed Florida, 3-seed Texas, 5-seed Arkansas, 5-seed Alabama, 6-seed Kentucky, 6-seed Vanderbilt, 8-seed Missouri, 8-seed Auburn, 8-seed Texas A&M, 10-seed Georgia, and 11-seed Oklahoma. The Bulldogs and the Sooners are listed as play-in teams, while LSU and Ole Miss are listed as two of the first eight teams out.

Tennessee Basketball went 1-2 in the preseason slate, with a home loss to Xavier, a road blowout at Duke, and a reported closed-door win at home against Davidson. The two losses weren’t all that pretty, and it’s clear that Tennessee is still working on fitting the pieces of its new-look roster together before the season.

The Vols brought in a ton of talent from the portal and the high school scene during the offseason, but it wasn’t meshing well in the team’s two preseason losses. Tennessee is going to need to work hard to find its team identity in the early portion of the schedule, but there should be quality chances to do so against teams such as Wofford, Radford, Tennessee State, Coastal Carolina, Morehead State, Marist, and Norfolk State.

Tennessee guard Terrence Hill led the way with 22 points against Xavier, while guard Dai Dai Ames had a team-high 19 points against Duke. The Vols reportedly got injured guard Tyler Lundblade back in the closed-door scrimmage against Davidson, and he put up some big scoring numbers in his on-court debut.

Rick Barnes’ squad will tip off the 2026-2027 regular season on Nov. 3 with a home game against Wofford at the Food City Center. It won’t take long before the Vols are tested again, though, with a home game against No. 6 Michigan State on Nov. 17 and the Players Era Tournament in Las Vegas on Thanksgiving week.

Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for more Tennessee Basketball news, notes, and coverage.