Tennessee basketball is 6.5-point favorites in its NCAA Tournament Round of 32 matchup against Texas according to Draft Kings. The over/under is set at 146.5.
It’ll be the Rick Barnes bowl on Saturday night as Tennessee’s ninth-year head coach faces the school that he spent 17 years coaching prior to his time in Knoxville. Analytical based college basketball website KenPom projects Tennessee to earn an 75-70 victory over Texas.
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No. 2-seed Tennessee is back in the Round of 32 after dismantling 15-seed Saint Peter’s 83-49 on Thursday night in Charlotte. The Vols came out locked in, jumping out to a 29-7 lead and never looking back in the route.
No. 7-seed Texas also used an elite defensive stretch to take control in its NCAA Tournament opening round matchup against Colorado State. The Longhorns held Colorado State to just three points in the final 15 minutes of the first half as they opened up a 16-point lead.
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The Rams made a second half run but Texas withheld it and earned a 56-44 victory to punch its ticket to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Neither team is a stranger to a high pressure Round of 32 matchup. Both the Vols and the Longhorns made it to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament last season with Tennessee falling to FAU in the Sweet 16 and Texas falling to Miami in the Elite Eight.
Neither team are strangers to one another either. Past the coaching connections between the two schools, the two teams have met on the hardwood for each of the last two seasons. Texas won the matchup in Austin 52-51 during the 2021-22 season while Tennessee won the matchup in Knoxville 82-71 last season.
Tipoff from the Spectrum Center in Charlotte is at 8 p.m. ET on Saturday night. Brian Anderson, Jim Jackson and Allie LaForce are on the call for CBS.
