KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee men's basketball has been announced as a No. 4 seed in the 2023 NCAA Tournament and the Vols will begin play in the East region.
The Vols will play their first-round game against Louisiana on Thursday, March 16. The game is slated for 9:40 p.m. on CBS.
UT's section of the bracket also includes fifth-seeded Duke and the No. 12 seed Oral Roberts. Tennessee will play the winner of that game if it advances past Louisiana in the opening round.
The Vols have earned a top-five seed under Rick Barnes every season the tournament has been held since 2018. The highest seed the team has earned during his tenure is the No. 2 seed in 2019. That team reached the Sweet 16 that season.
Tennessee was projected to be as high as a No. 1 seed throughout the course of the season, but late hiccups caused the Vols to fall to the No. 4 spot. The Vols went 4-6 to close out the season and are most recently coming off a loss to Missouri in the SEC quarterfinal round. The team has been without starting point guard Zakai Zeigler for nearly four games after he suffered a season-ending injury against Arkansas on Tuesday, Feb. 28.
