Tennessee vs Purdue NCAA Tournament Betting Line: Prediction & Pick

Tennessee vs Purdue prediction & pick

Getty Tennessee Volunteers, who will face off against the Purdue Boilermakers.

The second-seeded Tennessee Volunteers match up against the third-seeded Purdue Boilermakers in a South Region Sweet 16 showdown. Tennessee looked a little shaky to start off the tournament letting Colgate make a second-hand push while being forced into overtime against Iowa. Despite looking shaky so far, Tennessee is playing team-first basketball and picked up a very quality win over an underrated Iowa team.

Meanwhile, Purdue has looked rock solid in the tournament with a beatdown of Old Dominion followed by a blowout against reigning champion Villanova. While Villanova was in a down year, they still won the Big East tournament and are a dangerous test.


#2 Tennessee Volunteers vs #3 Purdue Boilermakers Betting Line

(Betting Line & Total courtesy of Oddsshark.com)
Betting Line/Point Total

  • Tennessee vs Purdue
  • Thursday, March 28th – 7:29 pm ET
  • Point Spread: Tennessee Volunteers (-1.5)
  • Point Total: 146.5

Tennessee vs Purdue NCAA Tournament Projection & Picks

Despite being pushed to the limit in their first two matchups, the Tennessee Volunteers look surprisingly strong heading into their Sweet 16 matchup. In one of the more shocking moves of the tournament, Tennessee leader and star player Admiral Schofield actually pulled himself out of the game against Iowa as he felt teammate Kyle Alexander was a better matchup against the Hawkeyes. The move ended up working well as Alexander had a number of big rebounds late and epitomizes the scrappy “win at all costs” mentality that this team has.

On the other hand, the Purdue Boilermakers have yet to show a crack in their armor and have two blowout wins over Old Dominion and Villanova. The Villanova win was a particularly good one as although Nova is not the same team that won the national championship last season, they still won the Big East and had found themselves rounding into form late. Purdue is led by the inside-outside duo of Carsen Edwards and Matt Haarms, with Edwards providing a steady veteran force leading the offense while Haarms protects the rim and does a lot of the dirty work as a versatile big man.

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Given their recent play, Purdue looks to be playing a bit better basketball and Haarms should be a major mismatch on the interior. However, Tennessee is the faster and more athletic of the two teams and has a knack for hanging around and giving themselves a shot to win the game. Despite his size, Haarms isn’t the best rebounder and will need to bring his A-game against a very physical and strong Tennessee team that will be looking to outwork him. If Haarms can be a force down low and make Tennessee divert attention away from star scorer Carsen Edwards, Purdue stands to have a very good chance to win this game.

Look for an extremely close matchup for the duration of the game with Purdue sneaking ahead late and winning in what should be one of the most entertaining games of the tournament. Although they should win, look to take Purdue with the points just to protect in the event of a Tennessee buzzer-beater considering how close this matchup projects to be.

Pick: Purdue Boilermakers (+1.5)