March Madness: 5 advantages Vols have in South Region of the Sweet 16

The Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament is here. These are five advantages the Tennessee Volunteers have over teams in the South Bracket of March Madness.

Well, March Madness this year is not so mad. Of the top 16 seeds in the NCAA Tournament, 14 of them made it to the Sweet 16. However, in the South Region, Tennessee basketball gets to be joined by the biggest underdog in the No. 12 seed Oregon Ducks.

Ironically, the only other underdog is the Auburn Tigers, a No. 5 seed and the team that cost the Vols an SEC regular season and SEC Tournament championship. Anyway, as they enter the South Region, UT’s road is brutal to the Final Four.

There are no easy paths for anybody in this year’s March Madness. However, the Vols have a few advantages that we saw coming in. They have already gotten past what could have been a home-court disadvantage in Columbus had they played the Cincinnati Bearcats in the second round. Of course, the Iowa Hawkeyes still gave them a scare, but that’s one scare in the rearview.

Another scare would have been the Villanova Wildcats, who are a brutal matchup for the Vols after a week’s rest. But the Purdue Boilermakers, Tennessee’s Thursday opponent, managed to get rid of the Wildcats.

So while the No. 2 seed Vols have no easy path, they certainly have some advantages being in the bracket with Purdue, Oregon and the No. 1 seed Virginia Cavaliers. Rick Barnes’s team has shown it can beat anybody, and that includes those opponents.

But beyond just beating anybody, you could see these guys being the favorite. In this post, we’re going to break down why. There are numerous things that could favor Rocky Top over the next two games to reach their first Final Four.

Of course, it’s hard to have faith in them after they struggled to put away the Colgate Raiders and then Iowa. That doesn’t change what’s working in their favor, though, so let’s break that down here. These are the five March Madness advantages the Vols have over other teams in the South Region of the Sweet 16.