Tennessee will begin its SEC Tournament stay on Friday in Nashville.

The Vols have won the tournament crown five times. A potential sixth championship run this weekend could go along way in earning the coveted No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament--a program first.

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Fourth-seed Tennessee (25-6) first has to play 13-seed Texas at Bridgestone Arena (3:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network) to try and punch its ticket to the semifinals on Saturday and get within reach of its second tournament title in four years.

Here is a look back at the Vols' SEC Tournament title runs of 1936, 1941, 1943, 1979 and 2022.

Tennessee had never been here before.

The venue was familiar. The Vols were hosting the 1936 SEC Tournament on their home floor at Alumni Gymnasium, but being one of the last two teams remaining at the end of one weekend in late February and two days into March was an accomplishment itself.

Tennessee had already achieved one first, winning the league's regular season title with an 8-4 conference record that included wins over Georgia, Sewanee, Georgia Tech, Alabama and Vanderbilt.

Now it was in position for the tournament crown, too, playing Alabama in the championship game on March 2 after double-digits triumphs over Auburn and Kentucky.

The Vols had lost to Adolph Rupp's Wildcats team twice during the regular season, but ended their season in the third meeting after Floyd "Biggy" Marshall and Everett Martin combined for 23 points to clinch Tennessee's first-ever tournament final in a 39-28 victory.

The Crimson Tide beat Georgia Tech that same day to set the stage.

More than 3,000 fans packed into Alumni Gym for the final, according to the Knoxville Journal to see the Vols try and climax their "best season in all Tennessee history" with another trophy.

Those prospects where shaky early on, though. Alabama took a "substantial" lead in the first half, going up 9-2 as the Vols struggled to answer the Crimson Tide defense. Marshall and Martin eventually did, evening the score early in the second half.

It was Marshall that put Tennessee in front for good midway through the half on his way to All-Tournament honors and a 29-25 win.

The script was playing out again.

Tennessee had made deep runs in the SEC Tournament, only to have Kentucky end it season.

That 1940 semifinal game was particularly heartbreaking for the Vols. The Wildcats won 30-29 in double-overtime, and one year later inside the Jefferson County Armory in Louisville, it looked they were going to do it again.

Tennessee was atop the conference at the end of the regular season, its second title in six years and the first for head coach Johnny Mauer. The Vols followed it up with what the Knoxville News-Sentinel called the "toughest draw" of the tournament.

They beat Mississippi State in the opener, out-lasted Georgia for a two-point win and then thumped Florida, 47-26 in a four day span.

The championship match up between Tennessee and Kentucky was the third that season. The Vols beat the Wildcats in Knoxville, and lost the second meeting in Lexington.

Tennessee was in control at the start of this one, and showed little sign of letting up after it took a 19-9 advantage into the intermission.

Then Kentucky started to come back, and that familiar, deflating feeling of tournament games past crept back up for the Vols. They led by 10 with five minutes left, then the Wildcats rattled off a run to pull within two with less than two minutes left.

Tennessee needed some late-game heroics to change the outcome this time, and found it. Team captain Gilbert Huffman stepped in front of a Kentucky in-bound pass and took it the other way. The Wildcats didn't score again, and the Vols won, 36-33.

Dick Mehen dished the ball Paul Herman with four minutes left on the clock inside of the Jefferson County Armory in Louisville.

Herman finished off the sequence with a dunk to give Tennessee a two-point lead over Kentucky in the grand finale of the SEC Tournament.

Two weeks to the day, the Vols never came close to this position. The Wildcats thrashed them by 34 points at Memorial Coliseum in Lexington. That loss wasn't enough to derail Tennessee's regular season conference championship push, but now it was going back-and-forth with Kentucky for the tournament title.

The Vols needed to play twice on Feb. 27, 1943 to get to that moment when Herman scored the go-ahead basket. Tennessee beat LSU, 52-34 earlier that day in a dazzling performance from Mehen, who the Knoxville Journal said nearly "single handedly" beat the Tigers.

Mehen was masterful against the Wildcats, too. He scored 13 points and scored the game-tying bucket only moments after Kentucky took the lead.

But it was his assist to Herman that set up the deciding play. Kentucky scored one more time over the final two minutes, but never went back in front.

Tennessee claimed its second tournament crown in three years, and did it again over the Wildcats, 33-30. The SEC discontinued the tournament between 1953-78, but the Vols did win regular season titles in 1967, 1972 and 1977.

Tennessee hadn't yet led, and fouls were piling up at BJCC Coliseum in Birmingham on March 3, 1979.

The Vols had tied Kentucky once in the first half of the SEC Tournament Championship Game, but much of that afternoon was spent playing from behind and watching the Wildcats answer everything Tennessee threw at them.

Then the scoring drought happened. Kentucky went nearly seven minutes without a basket in the second half, and the Vols took advantage.

Reggie Johnson made four-straight free throws, Gary Carter knocked down a jumper and Terry Crosby disrupted a passing lane and took the ball back for a score on the offensive end.

A scoring blitz suddenly had the Vols in front and the Wildcats stunned.

That push didn't make easy on Tennessee which had beaten Auburn the previous day, 75-64 to set up its championship rendezvous with Kentucky.

The Wildcats eventually shot out of their funk and then the two teams traded blows. The Vols were clinging to a 1-point lead with 8:15 to go, then altered their game plan to run clock and hold on to the ball.

It nearly worked, but Kentucky drew even with a free throw with three minutes remaining. The Wildcats got a chance at the final shot--three attempts in fact, but all were off target. The SEC champion would be decided in overtime.

Johnson all but deiced the outcome in the opening minutes of OT, finishing a three-point play that gave the Vols the lead, which they held on to this time. They staved off the Wildcats down the stretch to win 75-69.

It was the third time that season that Tennessee had beaten Kentucky, something the program hadn't done since 1920.

Tennessee's third SEC Tournament Championship berth in five years was hanging by a thread.

The Vols had been the better team for much of the afternoon at Amalie Arena in Tampa on March 12, 2022, but Kentucky was making one final push and was down just one possession with minutes left.

But the Wildcats, seemingly bound for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, had those hopes dashed by four missed 3-pointers in the final minute and Zakai Zeigler free throws that catapulted Tennessee into title game against Texas A&M.

In beating Kentucky, the Vols had cleared one hurdle with one left. Tennessee hadn't won an SEC Tournament final in 43 years. It had lost in back-to-back years in 2018 and 2019, finishing as the runner up to Kentucky and Auburn.

This one wasn't close.

The Vols jumped out to a 14-0 lead before the Aggies found an answer. The closest they got was five points in the early-going of the second half.

Outside of those few minutes, Tennessee won its fifth SEC Tournament Championship with relative ease. Kennedy Chandler capped a tournament MVP performance with 14 points and seven assists and the Vols ran away with a 65-50 victory.

“This time of year is about players,” Vols' head coach Rick Barnes told reporters amid a on-court postgame celebration. “I just think it's their moment. It's their time to get the trophy. It's their time to cut down the nets,” Barnes added. “They came to Tennessee to help us make it a special place. They've done that. It's truly their time.”

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