KNOXVILLE, Tennessee — It finally happened.
To many fans in East Tennessee, the Vols are always number one.
Now they have the official ranking to prove it to the rest of the country.
The basketball Vols clinched the number one spot on the AP Poll for the first time in 11 years.
"This isn't an accident," said sports psychologist Dr. Craig Wrisberg. "They've worked hard."
But once a team takes that number one spot, it's hard to keep it.
Over the last four seasons of AP Polls, the average stay at number one for any college men's basketball team was 2.72 weeks.
In that four season time span, Duke, Kansas and Villanova were the only teams to hit double digits in how many weeks they pulled off a first place ranking.
Now, Tennessee's toppled them all for the first time since 2008.
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But being on the top of the polls is often referred to as a curse, because there's really nowhere they can go but down.
Dr. Wrisberg said basketball is a mental game and having the right mindset could keep the Vols at the top.
He worked with athletes at UT for over 30 years, as well as Olympic and high school athletes.
If the players let this recognition get to them, Dr. Wrisberg said it might not work out too well.
"It's actually easier, coaches will say, to motivate athletes when they're playing a favorite than when they are the favorite," said Dr. Wrisberg.
That's part of why it's hard to stay number one. One loss and it can all go away.
"Pressure is a perception," said Dr. Wrisberg. "A basketball doesn't know whether the person dribbling it is the number one ranked player in the country or not."
But the fans do.
Dr. Wrisberg said it's really about the players keeping their heads in the game, and not succumbing to the pressure.
"This team's experienced about every kind of situation that there is," he said of the 2019 Vols. "They've had blowout wins and then this last Saturday was a really tight grinding kind of win."
That alone may be enough to keep Tennessee on the top a little longer.
They play Vanderbilt in Nashville on Thursday.
"Let Vanderbilt worry about us," said Dr. Wrisberg.
A loss to Vanderbilt in 2008 is what cost Tennessee it's first number one ranking all those years ago.
But give these guys a break as they prepare for their next match up.
It's not about what happened last time the team was number one, it's all about how they play Wednesday.