Tennessee won at Illinois last month in what is its biggest and best victory to date. If the Vols are to remain the sport’s only unbeaten team, they’ll have to add an even bigger and better win Tuesday night at Florida.
It’s another good one in the SEC.
Specifically, it’s the team sitting at No. 1 in Tuesday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings (Tennessee) on the road against the team sitting at No. 8 in Tuesday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings (Florida). Despite being undefeated and ranked No. 1 both here and in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, the Vols are listed as 3.5-point underdogs inside the Stephen C. O’Connell Center.
“[Florida is] very similar to Arkansas — they have really good guards,” said Tennessee All-American candidate Chaz Lanier. “They’re gonna play in transition a lot and shoot a lot of threes.”
This is the first game in an eight-game stretch in which Tennessee will have seven Quadrant 1 opportunities (based on current projections). For Florida, it’s the second game in a three-game stretch featuring nothing but Quadrant 1 opportunities (based on current projections). Simply put, this is life for everybody in the SEC, where seven schools are in the top 17 of the NET — and 14 are in the top 47. Literally all road games in the SEC, other than road games at South Carolina, are Q1 opportunities this season. That’s just another way to illustrate how this is the sport’s best conference and perhaps the best conference ever, one that currently projects to send a record number of teams to the NCAA Tournament, according to Jerry Palm.
