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Tennessee basketball vs. Florida Gators: Vols preview, live stream, and prediction

By Billy Williford

LEXINGTON, KY - FEBRUARY 06: Admiral Schofield #5 of the Tennessee Volunteers celebrates during the 61-59 win against the Kentucky Wildcats in the game at Rupp Arena on February 6, 2018 in Lexington, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
LEXINGTON, KY - FEBRUARY 06: Admiral Schofield #5 of the Tennessee Volunteers celebrates during the 61-59 win against the Kentucky Wildcats in the game at Rupp Arena on February 6, 2018 in Lexington, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
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Tennessee basketball is back in Knoxville to take on UF Wednesday nigh. Here is the preview of the UT Volunteers and the Florida Gators.

Tennessee basketball (19-7, 9-5 SEC) is still searching for its 20th win of the season. After two straight road losses to Alabama and Georgia – one was a 28-point loss – we have to ask the question if the six-game winning streak was a fluke. If not, was the level of competition just bad? Four of the six wins did come to teams that fall 10th or below in the SEC Standings.

What’s scary is the schedule doesn’t appear to get any easier as the season comes to a close. Florida is the next game on Wednesday followed by a trip to Ole Miss and Mississippi State. Finally, Georgia comes to town on March 3rd for a revenge game to end the regular season.

Don’t look now but the Vols could be in jeopardy of losing a double bye in the in the SEC Tournament, and there is a realistic possibility that Tennessee basketball could be as low as a 7th seed. That might be a tad farfetched, but there is a legitimate possibility. Tennessee has a one-game lead over Arkansas, Missouri, Alabama, and Florida so with one loss the Vols could be officially in danger zone.

*BRACKET UPDATE* The loss to Georgia hasn’t hurt the Vols according to Joe Lunardi. In the latest bracketology, from ESPN’s Joe Lunardi, Tennessee is still the fourth seed in the East region playing Buffalo. Jerry Palm, from CBS, also didn’t take much thought to the loss and still have Tennessee as the 4th seed in the South region playing Louisiana.

As for the Gators, (17-10, 8-6 SEC) they are coming off back-to-back losses to Georgia and Vanderbilt. It’s hard to pinpoint which Florida team is going to show up on any given night. They have a 15-point win over Arkansas but have losses to Vanderbilt and Ole Miss.

Before we preview both teams and give our prediction, here is the information you need for Saturday’s game.

Florida Gators at No. 19 Tennessee Volunteers 
When: Wednesday, Feb. 21 at 9:00 p.m. E.T.
Where: Thompson-Boling Arena; Knoxville, Tennessee
TV: ESPN2
Live Stream: WatchESPN
Line: Tennessee -4.5
Over/Under: 137

VIEW OF THE VOLS

Record: 19-7, 9-5 SEC

Last 5: 3-2

Last 10: 7-3

The Vols are coming off a loss to Georgia, and it wasn’t a loss that made much sense. Grant Williams couldn’t get anything going against Yante Maten who is arguably the best player in the SEC. So as usual, the Vols were stagnant on offense and especially down the stretch.

The Vols seem to struggle to win games when there is an absolute stud on the other team. Another example was Collin Sexton from Alabama. He got the rim any time he wanted, and the guards couldn’t do anything to stop him. Tennessee basketball doesn’t have an elite defender that can play shut down defense as Josh Richardson could.

If we have to find a bright spot in the past three games, Jordan Bowden has to be mentioned. I’ve been critical of Bowden this past month because the kid is terrific, but at times he lacked aggressiveness.

The past three games, Bowden has taken an average of eleven shots. The past two games, he has scored 14 and 13 points. In fact, Bowden has scored in double figures in four of the last five games.

VIEW OF THE GATORS

Record: 17-10, 8-6 SEC

Last 5: 2-3

Last 10: 5-5

As mentioned above the Gators are coming off a 71-68 loss to Vanderbilt. The Commodores are ranked 13th in the SEC standings and have a lousy 5-9 in conference record. The game before that, Yante Maten went off for a 23-point game to help Georgia sweep Florida in a 72-69 OT win.

Junior guard, Jalen Hudson, leads the Gators as he is scoring at a pace of 14.9 points per game. He had an 18-point performance against LSU on 7-13 shooting and added nine rebounds.
Florida isn’t a physical team, and that has hurt them down the stretch of the season. Can Tennessee take advantage of that?

WATER-COOLER CHAT

Despite the lack of minutes, Jordan Bone is having a fantastic stretch of point guard play. In the past three games, he has had 13:1 assists to turnover ratio.

Lamonte Turner continues his hot streak shooting from the 3-point line. In the past five games, Turner is shooting 52.6% from deep.

PREDICTION

This game is scary, even though it’s at Thompson-Boling Arena and Tennessee basketball’s defensive intensity is at a high level. I can’t gauge this team though. I don’t want to overreact to back-to-back road losses because the SEC is deep this year.

On the other hand, I don’t know how much confidence I have in this team until they prove me wrong.

The Vols haven’t lost two games in a row since the start of the SEC season, and I don’t think they do on Wednesday night. Tennessee wins in another close one, 72-68.

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