Basketball

Which team can match Tennessee baseball? Why Vols basketball is next in line

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5 months ago

July 5, 2024

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Which team can match Tennessee baseball? Why Vols basketball is next in line

With one hire, John Currie changed the direction of Tennessee baseball.

With one beard – and a lot of victories – Tony Vitello won the hearts of Vols fans.

Now, Tennessee baseball rules the sport, for the first time ever. Tennessee’s championship drought is over.

When the Vols beat Texas A&M 6-5 in Game 3 of the College World Series finals on June 24, it marked Tennessee’s first national championship in any sport since its women’s indoor track and field team won the crown in 2009. That’s a 15-year span without a title. How long will Tennessee go before winning its next title? Not that long.

On this edition of “The Volunteer State,” Blake Toppmeyer of the USA TODAY Network and the News Sentinel’s John Adams revisit the baseball team’s triumph in Omaha and debate which Tennessee team will be the next to win a national championship.

For this debate, the hosts consider four programs: football, men’s and women’s basketball and softball.

Softball and men’s basketball never have won a national championship. Lady Vols basketball won its last championship under Pat Summitt in 2008. The 1998 Vols were the last Tennessee team to rule college football.

ADAMS: I hope Tennessee’s Tony Vitello doesn’t change, even as the face of college baseball

VOLS BASEBALL: What Tennessee national title means to Tony Vitello’s dad: ‘This is heaven for us’

TOPPMEYER: How Lane Kiffin helped Nick Saban with his ESPN homework

Who’s next? Here’s how we see it:

ADAMS: Tennessee baseball will win another national championship before any of those other four programs triumphs. Vitello’s program is here to stay. But, if we remove baseball from the equation, Tennessee men’s basketball is the next likeliest of these sports to win a national championship. The Vols have never reached the Final Four, but Rick Barnes’ program was closer than ever this past season. Tennessee football regained respectability, and the 12-team playoff should benefit the Vols. But, that program remains farther from the top of its sport than Tennessee basketball.

TOPPMEYER: I agree that Tennessee baseball will win a second title before any of these other programs we’re considering. I also agree that Barnes’ program is the next-best positioned, although I wonder whether Vols hoops will have staying power after Barnes retires. He’ll turn 70 later this month. Lady Vols basketball is further from having a national championship roster than at any point since Summitt’s retirement. Tennessee softball is a solid program, but it hasn’t seriously contended for a national championship in more than a decade. Football regained its footing under Josh Heupel, but it’s still a long march from being a top-15 football program to being a national championship squad. It’s a shorter march from being an Elite Eight program, as Tennessee basketball was last season, to winning a national championship in March Madness.