Tennessee basketball vs. Georgia: Odds, picks and prediction

Today, January 25th, the Tennessee Volunteers will be facing off against the Georgia Bulldogs. Tennessee basketball is currently riding a 2 game road winning streak and is returning home tonight at 7 pm ET. 

Tennessee basketball has been firing on all cylinders recently and is looking to continue this success tonight against the Bulldogs.

The No. 4 ranked Volunteers have been red hot and will be looking for redemption for the football team against Georgia tonight. Tennessee opened as a 16.5-point favorite, let’s look deeper to see what bets have value in tonight’s game.

Tennessee basketball notes

The Volunteers are 16-3 and ranked second in the SEC. They have been playing extremely well lately and have won 7 of their last 8 games. They have been riding the hot hands of Zakai Zeigler and Josiah-Jordan James.

Zeigler has been dominating recently and has completely changed his game around after a pretty bad first half against Mississippi State two games ago. Zeigler posted a 12-point 10-assist double-double in the win on Saturday versus LSU and has been carrying the Vols on his shoulders recently. On top of his tremendous offense, his defense is what makes him one of the best, if not the best, point guard in the entire NCAA.

Josiah-Jordan James has been dealing with injuries all year, but he is starting to finally look like himself. James had a season-high 22 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 steals in a dominant performance against the LSU Tigers last week.

I expect both of these players to stay hot and continue their electric performances in the game tonight at home.

Georgia basketball notes

Georgia is currently 13-6 and has a 3-3 record in the SEC. They have been slipping lately with two back-to-back losses versus Kentucky and Vanderbilt.

Georgia got off to a great start in SEC play, winning three of their first four SEC games against ranked opponents like Auburn, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State but have gotten into some type of slump.

This is a very good chance to buy low on the Bulldogs in this SEC matchup, as the Vols could be overlooking this game due to the top-10 matchup they will be having against Texas this upcoming weekend.

Georgia could very well surprise the Vols and keep this game close and make it a matchup.

Tennessee basketball odds and pick vs Georgia

Adjusted efficiency margin is one of the best statistics to analyze when handicapping college basketball. KenPom uses this metric to rank each Division 1 basketball team and has Tennessee ranked second in the country, according to AdjEM. For anyone unaware of what AdjEM means, the more positive the number, the better the team is. This metric takes the total offensive efficiency of a team and subtracts it from the defensive efficiency to determine how many points a team would outscore the average Division 1 basketball team.

The Vols have an AdjEM of +28.82, and the Bulldogs have an AdjEM of +7.81. Right off the bat, the vols theoretically should beat the bulldogs by 21.01 points. However, this is only based on one statistic.

The following two metrics are also significant in predicting college basketball outcomes: Adjusted offensive efficiency and adjusted defensive efficiency. AdjO shows the number of points a particular team would score per 100 possessions, or trips down the floor with the basketball, against an average Division I team, and vice versa for AdjD (the number of points they would allow).

Tennessee Basketball is ranked 33rd in the nation per AdjO and 1st per AdjD. On the other hand, Georgia is ranked 120th in AdjO and 78 in AdjD. The Vols have the upper hand in offensive efficiency and defensive efficiency. They are the better team and should be able to dominate Georgia from start to finish.

However, the statistic that I will be looking at and placing my bet off is the AdjT, aka the adjusted tempo. Both of these teams are extremely slow-paced, and with Tennessee’s incredible defense, I can’t possibly see Georgia putting up very many points.

Pick: Georgia Team Total U58.5 (-110).

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.