The Tennessee Volunteers have seemingly dropped in the AP Poll as expected following their two straight losses.

Tennessee basketball has lost three straight games under coach Rick Barnes, leaving him searching for answers for recent struggles.

Tennessee has been the much better team up to this point, and should have little issue covering against the Orange. After three losses at the Players Era Festival, the Syracuse Orange return home to face the Tennessee Volunteers on Tuesday night in the ACC/SEC Challenge.

Tennessee junior forward Cade Phillips will miss the rest of this season and have surgery to repair his left shoulder.

Nate Ament is averaging 17.1 points and 7.4 rebounds for Tennessee basketball, but has struggled in the past three games against better teams.