No. 15 seed Wofford will have a monumental task on their hands when they take on number two seed Tennessee in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The Terriers snagged the auto-bid out of the SoCon conference by defeating East Tennessee State, VMI, and Furman en route to their championship. Wofford took advantage of several upsets in the bracket and emerged the conference tournament winner despite not having to play anyone seeded higher than a three seed. Meanwhile, UT has been good most of the season but particularly dominant as of late, winning 10 of their last 13 games. The winner will take on the winner of number seven UCLA vs number ten Utah State.
How to watch Wofford vs Tennessee
- Date: 3/20
- Time: 6:50 p.m. ET
- Venue: Rupp Arena in Lexington, KY
- How to Watch (TV): TNT
- Streaming: fubo TV (link: https://www.fubo.tv/welcome/leagues/191260?irad=367782&irmp=1412332)
- Wofford record: 19-15 (10-8 SoCon)
- Tennessee record: 27-7 (12-6 SEC)
Wofford vs Tennessee odds, spread and total
Odds provided by FanDuel Sportsbook (link: https://sportsbook.fanduel.com/ )
Moneyline
- Wofford +1400
- Tennessee -4000
Spread
- Wofford +18.5 (-102)
- Tennessee -18.5 (-120)
Total
- 132.5 (-115 over, -105 under)
Wofford injury report
- None reported
Tennessee injury report
- J.P. Estrella (out, foot)
Tennessee vs Wofford series history
- Tennessee leads all-time series 8-0
Wofford vs Tennessee Prediction
Wofford is an easy underdog to root for. They made a run through the SoCon tournament after a middling regular season. They also have a fun big man in Kyler Filewich, who made an interesting adjustment to his free throw shooting this year. Filewich and guard Corey Tripp are both senior leaders on the team who will shoulder the majority of the offensive load for Wofford. The Terriers play at one of the slowest paces in the country, ranking 333 out of 364 D1 teams this year (KenPom). Keeping the pace slow will be crucial to keeping the Volunteers from running away with the game.
Tennessee comes in as one of the hottest teams in the country despite playing in a stacked SEC. As noted above, they’ve won 10 out of their last 13 games; two losses were true road games, while the final loss to an even hotter Florida team in the SEC tournament final. Zakai Zeigler will make life difficult for Wofford; he’s the SEC Defensive Player of the Year and was named to the First Team All-SEC. The senior guard is averaging 13.8 points, 3.1 rebounds and 7.3 assists per game for the Vols and is usually their tone-setter on offense and defense.
Fifteen seeds have defeated two seeds 11 times in the NCAA tournament, but if you're looking for the twelfth time you should probably look elsewhere. While the Tennessee offense does occasionally stagnant, the Vols defense is top-three in the country. The Terriers derive almost 40% of their scoring from three-pointers, but UT has the number one defense against the three. Filewich is an adept rebounder on offense, but Tennessee’s frontcourt will be a major jump in competition from what he’s used to. Terriers might keep it close for a half but ultimately the Vols pull away.
Prediction: Tennessee 74, Wofford 57