Tennessee drops 4 straight, faces No. 6 LSU and No. 5 Vanderbilt next after falling out of Top 25

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It's been a month to forget for Tennessee as the Lady Vols are in the midst of the worst stretch in program history.

Tennessee has dropped four straight games and six of eight in February, including the worst loss in team history — a 43-point rout by South Carolina — to fall out of the AP Top 25 on Monday. The Lady Vols had appeared in 31 straight polls.

It doesn't get any easier for Tennessee (16-10, 8-6 SEC), with games against No. 6 LSU and fifth-ranked Vanderbilt remaining on the regular-season schedule.

“We’ve had an incredibly tough stretch,” coach Kim Caldwell said after Sunday's 100-93 loss to Oklahoma. “You just (have to) be honest with your team, and they can handle it or they cannot. And sometimes the honesty is not good and sometimes the honesty is good.”

There were high expectations for the Lady Vols this season, with a top-10 recruiting class and transfer Janiah Barker added to the team. Barker didn't make the trip to Oklahoma for the game against the Sooners, and Caldwell said afterward: "She didn’t meet team standards, didn’t make the trip. We’ll fix it when we get back. She’s got a bright future and she’ll be fine.”

The Lady Vols should still make the NCAA Tournament, but could fail to reach 20 wins for the second time since 1982, not including the 2020-21 season that was shortened because of COVID-19.

Caldwell called out her players after the South Carolina loss, saying there was “a lot of quit in us tonight and that's something that is consistent with our team.”

Tennessee responded with a victory over Missouri but hasn't won since.

UConn still held the top spot in the NET ratings Monday ahead of UCLA, South Carolina and Texas. The SEC has four of the top seven teams, while the Big Ten has seven of the first 17.

Richmond and North Dakota State are the top mid-major teams, coming in at 40 and 41, respectively.

The NET is just one tool the selection committee uses to figure out which teams make the NCAA Tournament and where they are seeded. It has predicted the winner pretty accurately since it first was used in 2021. Four of the five national champions were No. 1 in the NET on Selection Sunday.

The NCAA will reveal for the second time this season the top 16 teams heading into the start of conference tournaments on Saturday. In the first reveal on Feb. 14, UConn, UCLA, South Carolina and Vanderbilt were the 1-seeds. The Commodores lost the next day to Georgia.

No. 8 Michigan at No. 13 Ohio State, Wednesday. The bitter rivals meet with Big Ten Conference seeding on the line. The Wolverines lost their last game, falling at then-No. 13 Iowa on Sunday. The Buckeyes have dropped two of three.

No. 12 Duke at No. 21 North Carolina, Sunday. The Blue Devils beat the Tar Heels in the first meeting earlier this month and will look to wrap up the ACC regular-season crown with another victory.

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