With the transfer portal window for women's college basketball closed, ESPN's Charlie Creme has released their first version of the 2025-26 season's bracketology.
A season after Tennessee earned a 5-seed and went on to lose in the Sweet 16 to 1-seed Texas, the Lady Vols have already begun to reload through high school recruiting and the transfer portal.
Here's where Tennessee is projected to be seeded as a result.
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Where the Lady Vols are seeded, potential path to a Final Four
Creme seeds the Lady Vols as a 2-seed in Region 2 Forth Worth. This would be the highest seed Tennessee has earned since its 2015 run to the Elite Eight, also as a 2-seed.
The first round matchup is projected to be against 15-seed Tennessee Tech. If the Lady Vols survive that matchup it'd play the winner between 7-seed TCU and 10-seed SMU in this projection. Both of the first two rounds would be played in Knoxville.
There are Tennessee storylines attached to both the Horned Frogs and Mustangs. TCU has added Marta Suarez, a former Lady Vol, out of the transfer portal this off-season. SMU just lost transfer Nya Robertson to Tennessee in this transfer portal cycle.
If the Lady Vols can make it back to the Sweet 16 for the second-straight year, they'd be placed in Fort Worth, Texas in this projection. Likely opponents in this round are 3-seed NC State, who knocked Tennessee out of the 2023 NCAA Tournament, or 6-seed Richmond, who the Lady Vols beat on a neutral floor last regular season.
Other possible opponents on the path to the Final Four are 1-seed UConn, 4-seed Michigan and 5-seed Notre Dame.
Who returns to the Lady Vols
Tennessee returns a good bit of its roster than contributed a year ago. The Lady Vols bring back three of their top four leading scorers including Talaysia Cooper who paced the team. Cooper has two years of eligibility remaining.
Ruby Whitehorn and Zee Spearman were the other pair in the top four in their first seasons at Tennessee after transferring in. They will both be in their final year of eligiblity this season.
The other returning piece in their final year is Kaiya Wynn. She was on track to play in her senior season before tearing her Achilles and being forced to miss the campaign. Now, returning from injury, it'll be her final year.
Young pieces on the roster that return are Kaniya Boyd and Alyssa Latham. After early enrolling the year prior, Boyd completed her impressive freshman year. Latham transferred in after one season at Syracuse and will have two seasons remaining.
Who the Lady Vols are losing
Tennessee's main reason for departure is due to losing eligibility. Jewel Spear, the team's second leading scorer, finished her second year with the program after transferring in from Wake Forest. Samara Spencer, in her first and final year after coming in from Arkansas, is now done after finishing fifth in scoring and first in assists on the team.
Sara Puckett, Tess Darby and Jillian Hollingshead, all players who have been around the program for multiple years, are also out of eligibility. Puckett and Darby both played their entire tenure with the Lady Vols while Hollingshead transferred in early in her career from Georgia.
The three departing transfers are Avery Strickland, Favor Ayodele and Destinee Wells. All three played sparing minutes with Strickland occasionally getting meaningful minutes in the case of injury or foul trouble.
Walk-on Edie Darby is also medically retiring and stepping away from the sport.
Who the Lady Vols bring in
To join the returners and attempt to replace the departures, Tennessee has already landed three signees out of the portal. Janiah Barker out of UCLA, Nya Robertson out of SMU and Jersey Wolfenbarger out of LSU are set to join the team.
Coming in alongside a trio of impressive transfers is the No. 2 freshman class in the country according to ESPNW. Three McDonald's All Americans lead the way via Mia Pauldo, Deniya Prawl and Jaida Civil, who all rank inside the top 20.
Lauren Hurst and Mya Pauldo also join the squad as four-star recruits inside the top 60.
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