Tennessee vs. Ohio State
Betting Prediction: Tennessee +4.5
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Ohio State and Tennessee met here in the Sweet 16 three years ago. The Vols raced out to a 17 point halftime lead, but they let it slip away, eventually losing to the Buckeyes by a single point. Vols head coach Bruce Pearl has seen his team reach the Sweet 16 three times in the last four years, but they’ve yet to win a game on the second weekend of the NCAA tournament. These are two legitimate motivating factors for the underdog tonight.

Tennessee also has some matchup edges against the Buckeyes. Tennessee is the much deeper team. Bruce Pearl routinely uses five players off his bench. Meanwhile, Thad Matta played Evan Turner, Will Buford and Jon Diebler for the full 40 minutes against Georgia Tech last Sunday, getting a grand total of 13 minutes, 0 points, 0 assists and 2 rebounds from his bench. In a tight, tense, uptempo game, against a defense that likes to press, don’t be shocked if the Buckeyes run out of gas at some point down the stretch.

Tennessee has other edges here as well. The Vols are playing tremendous defense; holding foes to 39 percent shooting for the season; 29 percent from beyond the arc, while forcing more than 16 turnovers per game. Those are all better statistical numbers than Ohio State brings to the table. The deeper underdog is also the better defensive team.

Ohio State does have the best player on the court, lottery bound Evan Turner. But they aren’t big enough in the paint to take advantage of the Vols relative lack of size. They aren’t deep enough to wear down Tennessee. And, with signature wins against the likes of Kansas and Kentucky from the Vols already this year, there’s certainly no class difference between these two squads. Expect a tight game, right through the final buzzer. 2* Take Tennessee.

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