Lady Vols basketball has officially played its way out of hosting the opening rounds of the NCAA Tournament.

No. 17 Tennessee (22-9) bowed out in the second round of the SEC tournament last week, and a deep run would have been its only hope to play its way back into the top 16 seeds. The Lady Vols now await their seeding for the NCAA tournament on Selection Sunday (8 p.m. ET, ESPN).

Here’s where Tennessee stands in the latest March Madness projections.

Lady Vols projected as a No. 5 seed

ESPN’s Charlie Creme said after Tennessee lost to Vanderbilt, there wasn’t a path for it to host as a top-16 seed. The second loss of the season to the Commodores was the Lady Vols’ third loss in their final four games before the NCAA tournament.

Creme projects Tennessee as a No. 5 seed in Spokane 2, which has UCLA as the No. 1 seed. The Lady Vols would be playing No. 12 seed Grand Canyon at Baylor, which would host as the No. 4 seed and play No. 13 UTSA.

The Athletic’s Mark Schindler is projecting Tennessee as a No. 5 seed in Birmingham, playing at Chapel Hill, North Carolina. No. 4 seed UNC Would host and play No. 13 seed Middle Tennessee. Schindler has UCLA as the No. 1 seed in that region.

Lady Vols basketball’s NCAA Tournament resume

The Lady Vols have three ranked wins against Iowa, UConn and Alabama. They also have seven wins over teams in the top 40 of the NCAA NET rankings – UConn, Ole Miss, Alabama, Florida State, Iowa, Richmond and Mississippi State. Eight of Tennessee’s losses are to teams ranked in the top 25 of the NET. The loss to Georgia is an eyesore on an otherwise strong resume with the Bulldogs ranked 106 in the NET.

Tennessee dropped to No. 14 in the NCAA NET rankings. It is 6-8 in Quad 1 games, 4-0 in Quad 2 games, 3-0 in Quad 3 and 9-1 in Quad 4. Five of the Lady Vols losses were to teams ranked in the top 10 at the time – Oklahoma, Texas, South Carolina and LSU twice – and all but one of their losses were by single digits. the 24-point loss at Kentucky was the only loss by more than eight points.

VANDERBILT LOSS NO. 2: Kim Caldwell explains Lady Vols’ collapse before March Madness, what change she should have made

Lady Vols basketball’s NCAA Tournament history

The Lady Vols are the only program never to miss an NCAA Tournament.

Tennessee was a No. 6 seed in the 2024 NCAA Tournament, which was its lowest seeding since being a No. 11 seed in 2019. The Lady Vols were a top-16 seed for three straight seasons from 2021-23. They were a No. 3 seed in 2021 and a No. 4 seed in 2022 and 2023.

Tennessee made back-to-back trips to the Sweet 16 in 2022 and 2023 for the first time since since 2015 and 2016. The Lady Vols bowed out in the second round last year, losing 79-72 to No. 3 seed NC State.

Tennessee has won eight NCAA championships and made 18 trips to the Final Four. All of those happened under coach Pat Summitt, and the last time it did either was in 2008.

Cora Hall covers University of Tennessee women’s athletics. Email her at cora.hall@knoxnews.com and follow her on X @corahalll. If you enjoy Cora’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that allows you to access all of it.

A 29-year-old married Tennessee cop whose wild sexcapades with a half dozen male officers in her stationhouse made national headlines, is now a low-key pharmacy technician, a report said.

Maegan Hall, the saucy one-time La Vergne Police Department gumshoe, was spotted walking her pooch while wearing scrubs with a Tennessee Department of Health patch, according to a report by The Daily Mail.

Now out of the limelight, Hall still lives in the $275,000 three-bedroom house in Manchester she purchased with her 31-year-old husband, Jedidiah, before she was fired, the outlet reported.

It’s unclear if the couple is still together, but the controversial ex-cop is living large after landing a $500,000 settlement from La Vergne. Hall had claimed in a lawsuit that she was groomed by the men in the police department to be a veritable sex toy for the ranks.

According to the Mail, Hall was licensed to work as a pharmacy tech in 2018 before she joined the force — with her law enforcement career brought to an abrupt halt when the sex scandal broke in 2023.

An internal investigation by city officials found that Hall had an ongoing affair with one of the department’s sergeants and was tied to trysts with other cops, including a threesome with one officer and his wife and a romp during a “Girls Gone Wild” themed hot tub party.

The probe found that some of the sexual encounters took place on the job and on police property.

La Vergne Police Chief Burrel Davis, who was not sexually involved with Hall, was fired over the scandal because he was aware and took part in locker-room-like ribbing over the hook-ups.

Hall, meanwhile, hired a lawyer and sued the city, the department and several higher-ups, speaking out about her raunchy behavior for the first time — but has remained mum about it since.

“I know what most people are saying,” Hall said during a March 2023 television interview. “You know, ‘You could’ve said no.’ I get it. But my response to them is ‘I did say no, and he wouldn’t take it for an answer.’ Eventually, I gave in from pressure.”

Meanwhile, the Mail says Hall and her college sweetheart husband still co-own the house — and noted that there were still two cars parked in the driveway.

Tennessee Football Sticks with Regular Spring Game Format

In an era of college football where many teams are taking a different approach to spring ball, especially the spring game, it seems as though Tennessee isn’t following that same mindset as Vols head coach Josh Heupel announced on Friday that Tennesee will hold its spring game in the usual scrimmage format.

“It’s important in particular for our young players to get a taste of what it’s going to be like in the fall to play in front of a crowd, big stadium,” Heupel said. “We open up on the road this year. You don’t want that to be the first time they’ve played in front of a bunch of people.

“So that experience, it can create urgency, understanding what it’s going to feel like as they finish up spring ball and go into summer. At the end of the day, we have to accelerate their growth curve. A spring game in those settings is part of accelerating their growth.”

Whether it’s due to a longer season, the transfer portal or something else, many of the top programs across the country, including Ohio State, are changing the format of the spring game – and spring practice as a whole.

That said, it will be interesting to see what other changes are made in terms of spring ball in this new era of college football with the expanded CFP moving forward.

Miami Hurricanes Hire Duke Assistant Jai Lucas

With Duke favored to win the NCAA Tournament, it will have to do so without one of its assistant coaches, as Jai Lucas was named the head coach of the University of Miami men’s basketball team on Thursday.

While the hiring isn’t a surprise, the timing certainly is. Lucas leaves the Blue Devils less than a week before the ACC Tournament and in the middle of what could be a national championship run. Most hirings used to happen during the offseason but in the new age of college sports with the transfer portal and NIL, that will no longer be the case, at least in basketball.

If Duke were to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament, its season would go until early April. With the transfer portal set to open March 24, Lucas would miss the first two weeks of the portal if he were to stay at Duke. Hence, he has decided to leave the Blue Devils after Duke beat North Carolina Saturday night for his first job as a head coach so that he will be with Miami when the portal opens.

“Timing, look, it’s not ideal. But there’s no other option,” Duke head coach Jon Scheyer said last Thursday. “This is the only thing that could have happened. Jai will coach our last regular-season game. And then he’ll have to move on to focus on his new job. And for us, we’re going to focus on the job that we have here, which is making a special run. Jai wanted to stay. This wasn’t a decision that Jai made. This is me and him working together.”

The 36-year-old is the son of former Maryland All-American John Lucas Jr., who was the No. 1 pick in the 1976 NBA draft. Lucas replaces Jim Larranaga after the 75-year-old stepped down in December in the middle of his 14th season with the Hurricanes.

George Mason Baseball Scores 23 Runs in an Inning

With the game tied, 0-0, George Mason rattled off a 23-run second inning against Holy Cross last Tuesday, breaking a Division I record that had stood for 42 years.

After the first batter of the inning grounded out, the floodgates opened for George Mason in a 23-run inning that had plenty of excitement:

• 11 hits (seven singles, four doubles)
• Eight walks
• Five batters were hit by pitch
• 19 consecutive hitters reached base either with a hit, walk, hit by pitch or fielder’s choice
• Five pitchers

The previous NCAA Division I record for most runs in an inning was 21, done by Valparaiso in 2010, Wichita State in 1984 and Penn in 1983.

It’s been a college baseball season full of plenty of runs so far, as Rhode Island and William and Mary combined for 58 runs (36-22) on Feb. 16, Oregon scored 35 runs in a game on March 1 and now this.

ICYMI

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Ryan Day says there’s a “long way to go” in Ohio State’s quarterback battle but wants to see Lincoln Kienholz, Julian Sayin and Tavien St. Clair show toughness and leadership this spring.

New Ohio State Defensive Coordinator Matt Patricia Wants to Put Players in Position to “Play Fast and Play Aggressive”

Matt Patricia’s defense will utilize a variety of packages, but his goal is to keep things simple for Ohio State’s defenders so that they can play fast and aggressively.

“It’s Your Job to Bring Value”: Will Howard Says Billy Fessler Taught Him “More Than A Lot Of Guys Could Have” Last Year and Keenan Bailey Praises Fessler’s Football Mind

Will Howard says Billy Fessler taught him “more than a lot of guys could have” last season and Keenan Bailey said Fessler is “one of the smartest football minds” he’s been around.

What’s Next

• 34 Days: Ohio State Football Spring Showcase
• 174 Days: Ohio State Football season opener vs. Texas
• 237 Days: Jim Knowles returns to Columbus
• 265 Days: The Game