Betting Guide: Tennessee vs. Louisiana
On Thursday night the Tennessee Volunteers tip it off against the Sun Belt Champion Louisiana Ragin Cajuns in Orlando to begin the NCAA tournament. Tip-off for the game is at 9:40 p.m. E.T. Odds are courtesy of Barstool Sportsbook.
- Tennessee (-10.5) v. Louisiana (+10.5)
- Moneyline: Tennessee (-590) v. Louisiana (+420)
- Total Points O/U: 136.5
Tennessee
The Vols are favored in the game by 10.5 points. Against mid-major foes this year, the Vols are 6-0 when covering the spread and when beating these teams as well.
Because the game is in Orlando, it makes sense to look at neutral site matchups. Tennessee played very well in neutral sites at the beginning of the season. They won the Battle-4-Atlantis Championship. This included wins over Butler, USC (Calif.), and defending national champion and No. 1 seeded Kansas.
The Vols also defeated Maryland in Brooklyn back in December as well as Ole Miss in Nashville for the SEC tournament.
Their two neutral site losses came against Colorado in Nashville for the second game of the season and Missouri in the SEC quarterfinal. This brings their neutral site record for the season at 5-2. An interesting note is that Tennessee covered the spread in just two of those games (Butler and Kansas).
Louisiana
The Ragin' Cajuns do not have a sizable quad one resume to look at this season. The Sun Belt champs are 0-1 against quad one teams with a loss to Texas. It is more fair to look at how they did in the conference tournament on neutral ground in Pensacola, Florida. They covered the spread in tow of their three wins in the Sun Belt tournament.
On their current five-game win streak that includes the tournament, the Cajuns covered in three of those five games. When comes to the points over and under, both offenses have been clicking as of late. Each team needs around 68 points to cover and they have been scoring that many. Louisiana has scored at least 68 in four of their last five during this win streak and Tennessee has done that in all of their last five.
The defenses for both teams can be suffocating at any time as has been seen by the Vols this year. For the Cajuns, their defense has held opponents to under 68 points in four of their last five.
My Bets: Tennessee ML, Louisiana (+10.5), O 136.5
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