The University of Tennessee men’s basketball team will do something on Wednesday night it is very unfamiliar with: Take the floor as the nation’s top-ranked squad. The Vols also are double-digit college basketball odds favorites at rival Vanderbilt.
How to Bet Tennessee vs Vanderbilt NCAA Basketball Odds & Game Info
“We’ve got a pretty simple goal: we just want to be the best basketball team that we can be.”
Coach Barnes looks ahead to Wednesday night’s ballgame in Nashville More 🗣 » https://t.co/otBeNYaMCU pic.twitter.com/tmiNIk376m — Tennessee Basketball (@Vol_Hoops) 23 de enero de 2019
- When: Wednesday, 7 PM ET
- Where: Memorial Gymnasium, Nashville
- TV: ESPN2
- Live Stream: WatchESPN
- Radio: TuneIn
- NCAA Basketball Odds: Tennessee Volunteers -10.5 (Total 149)
Last Season
Tennessee swept 2-0. The game in Vandy was 92-84. Grant Williams scored a career-best 37 points as UT rallied from a 10-point deficit in the second half. Vanderbilt couldn’t handle the 6-foot-7, 241-pound Williams around the basket despite double-teaming him at times. Admiral Schofield added 22 points. Jordan Bowden scored all 12 of his points in the second half for the Volunteers. Saben Lee led Vanderbilt with 21 points. Jeff Roberson added 19 and Riley LaChance had 16. Matthew Fisher-Davis scored 10 for the Commodores.
Tennessee leads the all-time series with Vanderbilt, 120-75, dating to 1922. This is the 196th meeting. The ‘Dores have a 54-41 edge when the series is played in Nashville. Tennessee has won four of the last five meetings in this series.
Why Bet on Tennessee?
The Vols moved to No. 1 in the AP poll on Monday to earn their first top ranking since the 2007-08 season. The Volunteers received 48 of 64 first-place votes from a media panel in the poll released Monday, after Duke, Michigan, and Virginia all suffered losses last week. Tennessee knocked Gonzaga from atop the AP Top 25 with Coach Rick Barnes’ first win over a No. 1 team in early December and won its two games last week, rolling over Arkansas and holding off Alabama. The only other time Tennessee was No. 1, it lost the next night to Vanderbilt.
Tennessee has no losses in regulation—its only setback coming in overtime against then-No. 2 Kansas at a neutral site. The Vols on Dec. 9 defeated then-top-ranked and undefeated Gonzaga on a neutral floor. Tennessee has defeated all but one unranked opponent it’s faced by double digits and boasts an overall scoring margin of +19.5.
The Big Orange also boasts two of the top scorers in the Southeastern Conference, as Grant Williams (18.9 ppg) and Admiral Schofield (17.4 ppg) rank first and third, respectively. The Orange are second in the nation in field-goal percentage (.511) while ranking seventh in field-goal percentage defense (.381). But those aren’t the only areas UT has excelled in, also placing second in assists (20.1 apg), sixth in blocks (5.9 bpg) and 10th in scoring offense (86.1 ppg).
A win would extend Tennessee’s win streak to 13 games. That would be UT’s longest win streak since the 1922-23 campaign, when the Vols opened the season with 14 straight victories from Jan. 8 through Feb. 20. It would also stretch the Vols’ true road game win streak to six. Finally, it would give the Vols a 10-game win streak in regular-season SEC games.
Team Stats
Offense- Total Score: 86.12
- Field Goal Percentage: 51.07
- Three-Point Percentage: 36.36
- Free Throw Percentage: 75.88
- Total Rebounds: 39.71
Defense
- Total Score: 66.59
- Field Goal Percentage: 38.15
- Three-Point Percentage: 30.53
- Free Throw Percentage: 64.08
- Total Rebounds: 33.94
Why Bet on Vandy?
The Commodores come off a loss to ranked Mississippi State. Vandy (9-8, 0-5 Southeastern Conference) opened the game 2-for-15 before climbing back to within six with under two minutes remaining in the opening half. Vanderbilt closed the gap to seven with 16:11 to play in the second half before the Bulldogs broke it open.
Vanderbilt was terrible at the charity stripe (14-for-26) and had a difficult time slowing down Mississippi State underneath. The Bulldogs out-rebounded the Commodores, 40-30 and outscored Vanderbilt, 40-24 in the paint. Sophomore Saben Lee scored 13 points to lead the Commodores, while freshman guard Aaron Nesmith, who leads the team in scoring in SEC games, also added double figures with 11 points.
Despite its conference record, Bryce Drew’s team does boast wins against Arizona State and USC. Freshman forward Simisola Shittu was a five-star prospect coming out of high school and has performed like one since arriving on campus. He leads Vanderbilt in scoring (13.6 ppg) and rebounding (7.6 rpg) while ranking second in assists (2.1 apg), blocks (0.7 bpg) and steals (0.7 spg).
The matchup with Tennessee will be the 27th all-time against a No. 1 ranked opponent, and the first since playing Kentucky January 20, 2015, in Lexington (L, 57-65). The Commodores have played Tennessee one other time when they have been number one and came away with a 72-69 win over the Volunteers in Memorial Gym on Feb. 26, 2008.
Vanderbilt has an 8-18 all-time record against teams ranked #1 in the Associated Press poll. The Commodores have faced Kentucky 19 (5-14) times when the Wildcats are number one, Florida three times (1-2), Michigan two times (0-2), and North Carolina (1-0) and Tennessee (1-0) one time. VU is 6-9 all-time against number-one ranked opponents all-time at Memorial Gym, with the last meeting coming against Florida on Feb. 25, 2014 (L, 54-57).
Team Stats
Offense- Total Score: 76.59
- Field Goal Percentage: 44.61
- Three-Point Percentage: 33.00
- Free Throw Percentage: 69.35
- Total Rebounds: 37.65
Defense
- Total Score: 71.00
- Field Goal Percentage: 41.43
- Three-Point Percentage: 31.34
- Free Throw Percentage: 69.46
- Total Rebounds: 35.76
Tennessee vs Vanderbilt NCAA Basketball Betting Trends
- Underdog is 4-1 ATS in the last 5 meetings
- Road team is 5-0 ATS in the last 5 meetings
- Tennessee is 5-1 ATS in its last 6 games on the road
- Tennessee is 5-1 SU in its last 6 games on the road
- The total has gone OVER in 4 of Tennessee’s last 5 games on the road
- Vanderbilt is 1-4 ATS in its last 5 games
- Vanderbilt is 0-5 SU in its last 5 games
- The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Vanderbilt’s last 5 games
Expert NCAAB Betting Prediction for Tennessee vs Vanderbilt
Vandy hangs within the number.
