Sophomore Zakai Zeigler will be coming off knee surgery when he takes the court next season.

-- Photos By Jerry Denham |The Ledger

The 2022-23 season for the Tennessee men’s and women’s basketball programs proved to be Sweet, but not Elite.

After becoming one of only four schools to send both programs to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament this year, neither team could advance any further. The fourth-seeded Vols lost to No. 9 FAU 62-55 at Madison Square Garden in New York and the fourth-seeded Lady Vols were eliminated by No. 1 Virginia Tech 73-64 the following night in Seattle.

Both programs started the season ranked highly in the Associated Press preseason poll – the Lady Vols at No. 5 and the Vols at No. 11 – before hitting some rough patches and suffering some injuries along the way. The Lady Vols dropped out of the poll completely until resurfacing late in the season.

“A lot of teams who went through what we went through at first probably would have folded. It would have been different. It wouldn’t have been a Sweet 16 team,” Lady Vols senior Jordan Horston says. “But I think it’s just a testament to who that team is and how special it is. So this year really meant a lot to me with it being my last. I didn’t want it to end.”

Defense carried Vols

The Vols were inconsistent for much of the season largely because of their offense. They had one of the top defenses in the nation all season long, but often struggled to score and lacked an offensive option to find points down the stretch of some games.

The injuries didn’t help them find any rhythm. The Vols lost starting point guard Zakai Zeigler to an ACL injury Feb. 28 while Josiah-Jordan James missed 12 games throughout the season and was never fully healthy. Julian Phillips missed four games and Santiago Vescovi missed two.

“We were in a position where most other people would just quit or just give up on the season and just wait for the next one to come up,” Vescovi says. “I never had that feeling from this team. I think the whole team, through adversity, we stuck together. … We had each others back, and we just fought.”

After beating Duke in the second round using a physical brand of play that garnered some attention, the Vols couldn’t find any offense to counter FAU down the stretch of the regional semifinal. The Owls used a big second-half run to beat the Vols on their way to eventually reaching the first Final Four in program history.

Transfer Rickea Jackson was named first-team All-SEC was a finalist for the Cheryl Miller Award.

The Vols haven’t advanced beyond the Sweet 16 in five NCAA tournament appearances in eight seasons under head coach Rick Barnes. All five losses have come to teams with a lesser seed, and the Vols have yet to beat a team with a better seed in those appearances.

Barnes is well aware of the narrative, and has higher goals for the program. But he also realizes the difficulty of making a run like Texas did when he was the head coach and led the Longhorns to the Final Four in 2003 and the Elite Eight in 2006 and 2008.

“The Sweet 16 is something to be proud about,” Barnes says. “Again, when you get there, you want more. You want an Elite Eight, you want a Final Four, you want a National Championship game.”

Lady Vols tested early, often

The Lady Vols endured a challenging nonconference schedule that featured five teams ranked at the time of the game, including Virginia Tech, and three others that eventually entered the rankings at some point.

They didn’t beat a ranked team until the SEC Tournament, but gradually began to find an identity and understand their roles as the season progressed.

The Lady Vols lost senior center Tamari Key for the season in December with blood clots in her lungs. Transfer Rickea Jackson was benched for a few games early in the season, but recovered to be a huge piece of the lineup alongside Horston as initially expected.

“We had to figure some things out early on. We did not have a schedule that gave us any mercy as we were trying to figure ourselves out,” Lady Vols head coach Kellie Harper says. “We had no margin for error early on, and we had several losses, but they still believed. They believed that they could be something special, and I’m proud of them for that. I’m proud of them for coming back to practice every single day willing to get better and willing to fight, and they did.”

The Lady Vols trailed by 18 in the rematch against Virginia Tech before cutting the deficit to one in the fourth quarter. But they couldn’t sustain the momentum, falling short of reaching the Elite Eight for the first time since 2016. Their last Final Four appearance came in 2008 when they won the last of their eight national titles.

“I told ’em that what they went through this year would have broken a lot of people - or a lot of teams. It would have,” Harper says of the postgame message to her players. “They were fun to coach. I love ’em. I really do. I hate that we’re not playing any more basketball. They wanted it so bad. They really did.”

Roster shake-ups

The rosters for both programs will look different next season aside from just incoming freshmen. The movement in college basketball is greater than ever with transfers and NIL money playing a more prominent role in decisions.

Key and Jackson have announced they will be returning to the Lady Vols for the 2023-24 season. Horston is expected to enter the WNBA Draft.

For the Vols, Zeigler will need to rehabilitate his injury before returning to the court. Several of UT’s seniors could return and use the extra eligibility the NCAA granted players during the pandemic. Some may leave to pursue a professional career.

No matter what they ultimately decide, Barnes was appreciative of all the seniors provided.

“I will remember that they, in so many ways, just represented the University of Tennessee in a first-class way,” Barnes says. “They created a great love affair with Rocky Top and our fan base, which I’ve told many people I think it’s the best out there. They’re what we want our program to be about, high character, come from great families, great work ethics.”