Tennessee Looks To Keep Rolling Against South Carolina

Tennessee vs. South Carolina, 7:00 ET

I ziged when I should've zaged. Well… something like that at least. I played a Big 10 game last night and I took the under in a Big 12 battle the night before. The under was blown out and it led me to start thinking about how maybe the offenses are just better and the defense isn't quite as strong in these conference matchups. So, I took the over in the game between Purdue and Illinois. That game had a total in the 160s… it didn't even get to the 150s. It still was a 1-1 day, so not the end of the world, but I'm looking to get back on track. Tonight we take on a game between Tessee and South Carolina. 

I'll be honest, I didn't expect this out of Tennessee. They are 23-6 on the season and sit at 13-3 in the conference. They've been on a roll lately and are showing no signs of slowing down. I think it was before the Auburn game that I said they would be lucky to end the season with a 2-2 record. They would need to lose tonight and at home on Saturday for that prediction to come true. Lately they are playing so well that I don't think I can support that prediction any further. They beat Auburn by eight points, and they beat Alabama in Alabama on Saturday by seven points. Winning on the road is always a challenge for college basketball teams, but Tennessee seems fairly comfortable, having beaten Kentucky, Arkansas, Missouri, and Alabama in four of their past five road games. They faced South Carolina earlier this season and lost on their home floor, the only home loss that Tennessee has had this year. They dropped that game by four points, in what was a low-scoring game. Of course, Dalton Knecht was the leading scorer in that game, pouring in 31 of the 59 points the Volunteers put up. It seemed the Gamecocks strategy was to let Knecht score and stop everyone else. It apparently worked. 

South Carolina has put together a really nice season. For the year, they are 24-5 and a win here can tie them with Tennessee within the conference as they currently are 12-4 in the SEC. The Gamecocks are 10-2 over their past 12 games and have won three straight coming into tonight's game. The two losses in this span came against Auburn and LSU. The road game against Auburn was a massacre as they lost by 40 points. The next game was against LSU on South Carolina's home floor, and they lost by just one point. South Carolina hasn't had quite as difficult of a schedule as Tennessee has had but they are still 3-2 against ranked opponents this year (that includes the victory over Tennessee). They don't have a pure scorer like Knecht, but they have a solid guard in Meechie Johnson that can get them buckets when needed. They also sport a good combination of forwards in B.J. Mack and Collin Murray-Boyles. This is a fairly deep team as well, one that sees the coaching staff trying different combinations in hopes of seeing what will work and who has the hot hand. 

Tonight, I think the Volunteers get some revenge. They are one of the hottest teams in college basketball and keep finding ways to win. They have a go-to scorer when need and they have the balance in most games to get everything else done. Picking against the Gamecocks on their home court isn't a great idea, but a lot of times these teams don't win both games against opponents, especially if one team is better or they are evenly matched like these two squads. I'm going to back Tennessee to cover the -5.5 in this game and hope they can keep rolling in this one. 

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