NCAA Tournament 2023: Ranking the 8 matchups in the Sweet 16
By Joey Loose
6. 4 Tennessee vs. 9 Florida Atlantic
Throughout the regular season, Florida Atlantic was impressive, even if they weren’t exactly beating up on the strongest competition. The Owls had a 20-game winning streak early in the year which started with a road win at Florida. They were in great shape with the NET and other metrics all season long and continued that on college basketball’s biggest stage. They got a clutch last-second shot to knock off 8-seed Memphis and held on in an exciting matchup with Cinderella 16-seed Fairleigh Dickinson. They’re the rare 9-seed who didn’t play a 1, but they’re plenty tested.
On the other hand, Tennessee has gotten their fair share of tests already in this Tournament. An elite defensive squad that struggled down the stretch in the regular season, the Volunteers are trending in the right direction even after the loss of point guard Zakai Zeigler. They held off the upset-hungry 13-seed Louisiana in the opening round before delivering quite a statement in a double-digit win against 5-seed Duke. They held their ground and have been playing much better basketball since the Big Dance began, having won just five of twelve games before then.
Florida Atlantic has already upset one SEC team this season, but can they do it again in a much more important game? The Owls didn’t win either of their games with hot shooting but might need that to carve through a very stiff Tennessee defense. However, Tennessee’s offense is known for their cold spurts and it’s certainly possible that the Owls take advantage and make this a tight, low-scoring affair as a result. Could we really see a team from Conference USA in the Elite Eight?