The No. 13 Tennessee Volunteers (7-1) and Syracuse Orange (4-3) are set to face off Tuesday night, going head-to-head in upstate New York. That leg of the ACC-SEC Challenge will tip off at 7 p.m. ET.
The Volunteers are 7.5-point favorites on the road with -395 moneyline odds, and the total has been set at 146.5 points. Here is a preview of the high major matchup featuring odds and lines from DraftKings Sportsbook.
Tennessee vs. Syracuse Preview
Tennessee Preview
After beating Mercer 76-61 in their season opener, the Volunteers rattled off a string of blowout victories. They scored at least 89 points and didn’t allow more than 66 against Northern Kentucky, North Florida, Rice and Tennessee State. Tennessee kept it up at the Players Era Festival, beating Rutgers 85-60 and #3 Houston 76-73. Their undefeated season came to a close against Kansas, as the Vols lost 81-76 to close out their time in Las Vegas.
Tennessee’s two-man game of Ja’Kobi Gillespie and Nate Ament have sparked the team’s success so far this season. Gillespie, a 6-foot transfer from Maryland, is averaging 18.5 points, 5.3 assists and 1.5 steals per game while shooting 54.0% from 2, 35.3% from 3 and 81.5% from the line. He is hoisting up 8.5 triples per game. Ament, a 6-foot-10 freshman, is attempting 4.9 three-pointers per game. He is also averaging 17.9 points, 7.6 rebounds and 1.9 steals per game on .404/.308/.823 shooting splits.
Bench spark plug J.P. Estrella is averaging 12.0 points in just 14.3 minutes per game, thanks in large part to his SEC-leading 76.1% effective field goal percentage. Felix Okpara, a center in his second season post-transfer from Ohio State, is averaging 8.8 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game. Thanks to Ament and Okpara, the Volunteers rank 18th in rebounds and 29th in rebounds against per game nationally. Tennessee’s opponents are shooting 36.8% from the field, which ranks 16th in the country.
The Vols rank 12th in the updated KenPom ratings. Their adjusted offensive rating ranks 18th, while their adjusted defensive rating ranks 13th.
Syracuse Preview
The Orange opened the regular season with an 85-47 win over Binghamton. They followed that up by beating Delaware State 83-43 and Drexel 80-50, all before they narrowly avoided an upset bid from Monmouth by notching a five-point victory. Syracuse lost its first real test on November 24, falling 78-74 to #3 Houston in overtime. Over the next two days, the Orange lost by 11 to Kansas and by 31 to #15 Iowa State to close out the Players Era Festival.
Sophomore forward Donnie Freeman is the Orange’s leading scorer so far this season at 17.8 points per game, but he will miss his fourth straight with a lower-body injury. That means freshman Kiyan Anthony – son of Carmelo – is the most prolific scorer remaining. Anthony is averaging 11.9 points per game, shooting 58.1% from two, 22.2% from beyond the arc and 50.0% at the free-throw line. Georgia Tech transfer Naithan George leads the team with 5.6 assists per game, while UCLA transfer William Kyle III is averaging a team-high 8.0 rebounds and 2.3 blocks a night.
Through seven games, Syracuse’s opponents have shot just 41.5% on two-point attempts, which is good for the 13th-lowest mark in the country. Their three-point percentage against was top-50 prior to the Players Era gauntlet, when Houston, Kansas and Iowa State shot a combined 39.7% from deep and bumped the Orange down to 115th in that category.
Syracuse is ranked 71st in the latest KenPom ratings, boasting the 89th adjusted offense and 57th adjusted defense in the country.
Tennessee vs. Syracuse Pick, Best Bet
As regularly as Tennessee’s games exceeded 146.5 points in the early goings this season, their high major showdowns haven’t done so as comfortably or consistently. The same goes for Syracuse, since they only cleared the over last week in an overtime game and a blowout loss. The Orange are at home Tuesday night, so the Volunteers probably won’t be able to run up the score like they did in Knoxville against inferior competition.
And yet, Tennessee held a 27.7-point average margin of victory through six games, even beating a 5-3 squad Rutgers by 25. Try not to fall into the transitive property trap, since the Volunteers only beat Houston by three the day after the Orange lost to them in overtime. Both teams lost to Kansas, too – Syracuse by 11 and Tennessee by five. That all explains the 8.5-point spread, but the Vols simply have more firepower than the Orange. With Freeman still out, Anthony averaging just 8.0 points per game in his absence and the Syracuse defense showing signs of weakness last week, Tennessee should be able to win this one comfortably.
