Tennessee Volunteers
Odds: +2 ˝, 146 vs. Louisville
Game time: Thurs. March 27, 9:55 p.m. ET
By some incredible stroke of Volunteer luck, Tennessee managed to cover the spread in their second-round game by an ulcer-inducing half-point. A better-than-advertised Butler squad battled the Vols from wire-to-wire and took Tennessee to overtime before falling short of the win.
Butler’s Adam Graves was far-and-away the best player on the floor as he repeatedly slashed his way through the Tennessee defense and made every spectator in the building forget about that win in Memphis back in February over the then-No. 1 Tigers. Tennessee is vulnerable in a lot of ways, particularly on man-to-man defense, and unless Bruce Pearl can make some quick-fix adjustments, they could be sitting ducks against the Cardinals.
Chris Lofton, the Vols leading scorer through the season, has disappeared in the Tournament. He scored just five points against American and nine points against Butler and it won’t help that he’s been in a walking boot since Sunday after “tweaking” his ankle. Pearl says he’s expected to play but they’ll need Lofton to be 100 percent if they have any hope of hanging with Louisville.
Tyler Smith, JaJuan Smith and Wayne Chism have picked up the slack while Lofton has been AWOL, but the Volunteers have lost their touch from three-point range. They’re just 11-of-38 (29 percent) from distance in their two tournament games. That was a shot that they've relied on throughout the season, but against Louisville, which has the sixth best three-point field goal defense in the country, it may continue to haunt them.
Tennessee started the Butler game with J.P. Prince at point guard, but he didn't deal well with the pressure and finished the game with six turnovers. Pearl didn't play the sophomore in the overtime period. UT must get its point guard situation sorted out before Thursday's game because the pressure will be turned up even higher against Louisville's full-court press.
Pick: Louisville
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