Tennessee Volunteers vs. Florida Gators Preview
During this time of the year, schools are positioning themselves for their upcoming conference tournaments, and next Tuesday’s (Feb. 23) contest in Gainesville will be no different.
The winner between the Tennessee Volunteers and the Florida Gators will have secured a higher seed for next month’s SEC Tournament. Currently, both are tied for third place in the SEC Eastern Division, as the Vols will be seeking their sixth straight win over the Gators and making things interesting in basketball betting.
Since arriving in the SEC, Volunteers coach Bruce Pearl has dominated Florida with an impressive 8-1 record in head-to-head meetings, including a perfect 5-0 mark on Tennessee’s homecourt. But this year has been a struggle, as Pearl had to throw off his best player (Tyler Smith) from the squad early in the season. The Vols continue to misfire from the 3-point line, as they shot only 25 percent from beyond the arc, but Pearl is convinced that his team is finally making big shots to win important conference games.
In their first match-up on January 31st, the Volunteers won a highly-contested 61-60 victory over the Gators, as they scored the winning bucket with just under 25 seconds remaining in the game. They overcame a sluggish first half, as the Vols held the talented Gator backcourt tandem (Erving Walker and Kenny Boynton) to a combined 13 points on the afternoon. Usually, they account for 50 percent of Florida’s total offensive production.
Gators head coach Billy Donovan could continue to use a more pressing defense that limited Tennessee to a combined 36 percent shooting percentage in their last meeting. Offensively, Donovan will need F Alex Tyrus to score closer to his season average of 14.9 points than his career mark of 4.8 points against Tennessee in order for Florida to be successful.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.