The Tennessee basketball program has earned a fifth consecutive NCAA Tournament berth and gathered as a team on Selection Sunday to learn its draw.
The Volunteers (23-10) earned a No. 4 seed for the fourth time in program history (also in 1981, 1999 and 2000) and will travel to Orlando, Florida.
Tennessee’s first-round opponent in East Region action is 13th-seed Louisiana on Thursday. Tipoff is set for 9:40 p.m. ET on CBS. Two days later, the winner of that game will then face the winner of the first-round matchup between five-seed Duke and 12-seed Oral Roberts.
Fans can purchase tickets HERE.
Louisiana (26-7), led by head coach Bob Marlin, won the Sun Belt Conference championship this season.
The Vols are 9-1 all-time against Louisiana (formerly Louisiana-Lafayette), with the most recent meeting coming in Knoxville in 2018—an 87-65 UT victory.
These programs have met twice previously in the NCAA Tournament, with the Vols winning both games. Tennessee posted a 61-57 triumph in the first round (then the round of 48) in 1982 in Indianapolis, and later beat the Cajuns in the round of 64 in 2000, 63-58, in Birmingham.
This is Tennessee’s 25th all-time NCAA Tournament appearance, while Vols head coach Rick Barnes is making his 27th appearance as a head coach and his fifth leading the Big Orange.
Tennessee has never previously played an NCAA Tournament game in the state of Florida, but the Vols’ most recent postseason appearance in The Sunshine State resulted in last year’s SEC Tournament championship in Tampa.
Big 10 Conference champion Purdue (29-5) is the No. 1 seed in the East Region.
University of Tennessee students can purchase NCAA Tournament tickets starting Monday, March 13 at 9 a.m. ET via BigOrangeTix.com.
-UT Athletics
