The biggest college basketball game of the year
I normally don’t write about a college basketball game three days in advance, but then again I’m normally not this excited about one regular season college basketball game. I have had the Memphis-Tennessee game circled on my calendar for months. I was pretty sure that it was going to be a good one when I first saw the schedule, but I had no idea that it would be anywhere near this good. Number one and number two don’t play very often, and in-state rivals in the top two seeds virtually never play. This is one to remember.
The other way that you can know that this is a huge game is that the line came out on Wednesday night for a Saturday night game. That has happened, well, once this year that I am aware of. Memphis, the home team, has been installed as six point favorites.
Before I spend any time looking at this game I should be honest - I am a huge Memphis fan, and I have had a problem with Tennessee ever since Peyton Manning played there, so my objectivity isn’t all that it could be. That being said, I have to say that I was a little bit surprised to see Memphis favored by that much. I was expecting something more in the range of three or four points. I would lean towards taking Memphis, and the image that sticks in my mind is of how they dismantled Georgetown in the second half. I also don’t think that Tennessee will be able to play zone defense effectively enough to shut down the Memphis offense. I would certainly understand the opinion that the spread is a bit too big, though. I would anticipate that it will shrink a bit, and I would be inclined to wait a bit to see how it moves before I made a bet.
The one thing that excites me most about this game is how both teams came in. They played games on Wednesday night against lesser opponents - Tulane for Memphis, and Auburn for Tennessee. It would have been understandable to see the teams look beyond the easy games and put in a sub-par effort. Instead, both teams played well, won easily, and covered the large spreads. The focus isn’t that surprising given that both teams are exceptionally well coached, but it is still exciting to think that both teams are heading into the big game in top form. I’ll be counting the seconds until this one tips off.
Tags: memphis, tennessee, tigers, volunteersRelated Stories
POSTED IN: College Hoops
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