Will Tennessee women’s basketball make the 2026 NCAA Tournament?
· Yahoo Sports
GREENVILLE, S.C. — The vibes in the locker room were low March 5 after Tennessee’s women’s basketball team lost its seventh straight game, falling in the second round of the SEC Tournament to rival Alabama.
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After playing just 12 minutes and sitting on the bench for the majority of the second half in the loss to the Crimson Tide, Tennessee leading scorer Talaysia Cooper didn’t stick around the locker room long and instead walked to the bus with a Lady Vols staffer before the SEC opened up locker rooms to the media. In that hallway Cooper walked down, it was easy to smell the lingering cigar smoke coming from of the Alabama locker room — a longstanding tradition for the Crimson Tide’s football team when it beats the Volunteers.
“We just wanted to give her some air,” second-year Tennessee coach Kim Caldwell said. “I think your emotions can get running, and just wanted to get her outside and with a staff member so she could breathe.”
Alabama never trailed in its comfortable double-digit win over Tennessee. The loss for the Lady Vols gives the once-proud program its longest losing streak ever.
Because it’s been nearly a month since Tennessee (16-13, 8-8 SEC) has won a game — the Vols last defeated Missouri on Feb. 12 — a whole lot of people have been wondering aloud: Will they make the NCAA Tournament?
The short answer is yes.
Tennessee women's basketball's NCAA Tournament resume
Despite Tennessee’s slump and its mediocre overall record, it would be incredibly surprising to see it get cut out of the field of 68. Even after losing to Alabama, Tennessee still ranks 22nd in NET (NCAA evaluation tool), 33rd in WAB (wins above bubble), and has the third-best strength of schedule in the country based on the average NET ranking of opponents it has played.
Combined with 31 automatic qualifiers from conference tournament champions, the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee awards 37 at-large bids. So, with Tennessee ranking high in each of those three key metrics, they should absolutely still be in the field.
The Lady Vols also have five Quad 1 wins, which is more than what’s owned by teams many consider March Madness locks this season, like Baylor, Texas Tech, West Virginia, NC State, USC, Oregon, North Carolina and TCU.
So, Tennessee’s streak of appearing in every NCAA Tournament that has ever been played will continue this season. Though, it’s worth noting, when the Lady Vols hear their name called on Selection Sunday, they will tie the mark for the fewest number of wins by an at-large team over the last 40 years. Monmouth got in with 14 in the second tournament in 1983. Since then, no team with fewer than 16 wins has gotten in — excluding records from the COVID-impacted season of 2021.
Tennessee will likely be in the ballpark of a No. 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament, which means they would play a No. 9 seed in the first round at the host of a No. 1. The selection committee will aim to avoid putting Tennessee at an SEC team’s site in the first round, which means that — should current projections hold and if Tennessee wins its opening round game — it would likely play UConn or UCLA in the second round. The Bruins and Huskies already beat the Lady Vols this season by an average margin of 23.5 points.
Between now and the NCAA Tournament, Tennessee fans are wondering if this is fixable. Can the Lady Vols get back on track and win a game in March Madness?
Zea Spearman thinks so.
“We just got to get back in the gym and fix what we’re lacking right now, continue to work and continue to move through adversity,” the senior forward told USA Today Sports. “It’s pretty frustrating, but we just got to stick together and continue to work.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Will Tennessee women’s basketball play in March Madness