NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 Preview

Tennessee vs. Ohio State

By Kyle Ross

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Games involving Cinderella "mid-majors" have become the norm in this year's NCAA Tournament, but
that won't be the case in Friday's Sweet 16 regional semifinal between 2-seed Ohio State and 6-seed
Tennessee. These are two high-profile programs that spent most of the year in the Top 25 and were
each favored in both of their games thus far. Ohio State will be the favorite, currently laying 4.5 points at
most online sportsbooks.

The Buckeyes have covered both Tournament games thus far, winning by 17 and nine over UC-Santa
Barbara and Georgia Tech, respectively. Overall, the Big Ten regular season and tournament champs
have won their last nine games, going 5-2-2 ATS. Interestingly, both non-covers came against rival
Michigan, one of which was by half a point and the other occurring in the conference tourney featuring
a memorable finish where likely National Player of the Year Evan Turner drained a 40-foot three-point
shot at the buzzer.

Turner shot an uncharacteristically poor 2 of 13 and had just nine points against UCSB in the opening
round, but bounced back with a near triple double vs. Georgia Tech (24 pts, 9 rebounds, 9 assists).
Another OSU player to keep an eye on is the sharpshooting Jon Diebler, who has 43 points in the last
two games and 11 three-pointers made.

Ohio State is now 15-6 ATS as a favorite this season. They play excellent defense, allowing just 61.1
points per game.

Tennessee enters this game as an underdog for just the ninth time this season. They are the only team
in the country to have beaten both Kansas and Kentucky, ranked #1 and #2 respectively at the time, this
season. However, the last time the Vols were an underdog was the last time they played Kentucky and
they were blown out 74-45 in the SEC Tournament. Overall, they are 4-4 ATS as dogs this year.
Interestingly, all four covers resulted in outright victories. In addition to the upsets of KU and UK, Bruce
Pearl's team also beat Purdue on a neutral court in a game that was listed as a Pick Em.

The team has had to overcome numerous suspensions, which at one point left the squad with as few as
six scholarship players.

The Vols survived a close scare against San Diego State in the opening round, pushing for some and
losing for most at the betting window as 3 or 3.5-point favorites. They looked far more impressive in
Round 2, virtually leading wire to wire against upstart 14-seed Ohio. They outscored the Bobcats in the
paint 58-12. It was also the first time in six games that the team played a game that went Over the total.

Tennessee has gone 13-3 Under the last 16 times they've played as an underdog though and are 8-0
Under after shooting 55% or better from the floor in their previous games. That might help to sway
totals bettors in this one.

Bruce Pearl has yet to advance to the Elite Eight in his coaching career, losing in this round three times,
twice with Tennessee. One of those losses came to an Ohio State team that advanced to the National
Championship Game in 2007. Tennessee is a terrible tournament team against the pointspread, going
17-38 ATS in any kind of tournament game since 1997.