(2) Tennessee vs. (15) Saint Peter's: Betting Tips, Prediction, and Betting Odds

Two years ago St. Peter’s was the Cinderella story of the NCAA Tournament. This year could be a rough go for them though as they are 21.5 point underdogs in this opening game against Tennessee. St. Peter’s will try to slow the game down to get a win or even to cover this spread. If they can at least succeed in doing that, they may have a chance of covering this spread.

St. Peters has one of the top ranked defenses in the country but also one of the worst offenses due to this slow pace they play at. Just one time they lost by more than 21 points and that was against Rutgers.

For Tennessee they will just need to play their game and try to push the pace and force turnovers against a lesser opponent. Tennessee is also coming off of a bad loss in the SEC tournament to Mississippi State by 17 points where they scored just 56 points.

Saint Peter's +21.5 is available at the time of publishing. Playable at that number.

With how slow Saint Peter's plays, this spread may be hard for Tennessee to cover. If they are able to play their game they will run a lot of clock and hope to find a good shot late in the shot clock every possession. That is why they are one of the lowest scoring teams but also one of the top defense teams in the NCAA. Also, there has been only one game all year they lost by more than this amount and they cover the spread at 65%.

The NCAA Tournament is all about who is the hottest team. Right now Tennessee is not that hot, especially for a two seed. They are coming off a bad loss by 17 in their first game of the SEC Tournament and a loss right before that to Kentucky. In two of their last three games they scored 66 or less points. It will be hard to cover this spread if they are struggling to score effectively.

Under 129.5 Total Points is available at the time of publishing. Playable at that number.

A super low total of 129.5 points is justified for this game. St. Peter’s wants to play slow and that is what they have done all year. They have one of the top defenses because of it but also one of the worst offenses. The combination of St. Peter’s struggling to score and them slowing the game down on offense is a recipe for this total to go under.

Tennessee has a solid offense but they have struggled as of late. If this game is slow paced it will be hard to meet this total, especially if St, Peter’s also struggles on offense. The last two of three games for Tennessee have gone under this low total and St. Peter’s has gone under this in 60% of their games.

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