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College Basketball Picks & Predictions: Tennessee vs. Auburn (Saturday)

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Welcome to another Saturday college basketball slate as we are past the frigid week in most of America and the songs of Spring sound in the distance. We're over halfway through the season, and with the NFL dying down, the best sport in the land garners more attention. Today features two of the best matchups of the season and some sneaky games as well. After starting the year rough, the clouds are parting, and the sun seems to be shining down on the valley after going 9-3 over the last two weeks of articles. Hopefully, I pull off the same magic trick today. Let's get to it. Here are our top college basketball picks and predictions for Tennessee vs. Auburn.

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Saturday's Best College Basketball Bets: Tennessee vs. Auburn

Last Article: 2-1 | Season (Articles): 25-20 | Season (Overall): 78-83-1

Tennessee vs. Auburn

Location: Neville Arena | Auburn, AL
Line: Auburn -5.5 | Total: 141

I hate giving a full preview for a game with exceptions, but there is a lot in the air still for this matchup with both squads dealing with injuries and question marks for today's game. Of course, Auburn has been without Johni Broome over the last two weeks, who is arguably the most critical player in the nation. They've gone 2-0 without him but barely escaped Georgia with a win. Bruce Pearl seemed to hint that Broome's status indeed was in question and they would try to see if he could give it a go as a game-time decision

The Volunteers, meanwhile, have listed Igor Milicic and Jordan Gainey as questionable. The third and fourth leading scorers aren't as impactful as Broome, but Milicic leads the team in rebounds per game, with each individual playing over 26 minutes a night. It would be quite a blow if both miss. 

Still, the way this game is priced makes me think Broome will miss, and one or neither Volunteer will be out. This feels more like an eight-point spread if the best player in the nation is confirmed, right? Who knows. What I do know is that either way, this should be quite an entertaining game. 

In my humble opinion, no team looks better than when the Tigers are firing on all cylinders. They take care of the ball, don't make mistakes, and have a suffocating defense with the ninth-best interior opponent percentage and fourth-highest block rate. Looking at pure field goal attempt rate, they are third in the nation with the fifth-best effective field goal percentage in DI hoops.

Tennessee is no slouch either, obviously, with a 17-2 record and a top-five defensive unit as their floor. No team has done better at limiting the three-ball than Rick Barnes' squad, holding opponents to a 26 percent clip from deep. For context, that would be the best defensive three-point percentage in a season since 2005, per KenPom. Still, both the Volunteers losses have come on the road and both were pretty ugly. The loss in itself to Florida is understandable, but only putting up 43 points is not. It doesn't help going 4-29 from three but they also went 8-27 (30%) from inside the arc. They couldn't buy a bucket. The Volunteers shot 48 percent from downtown against Vanderbilt and added 17 points at the charity stripe, so there's really no excuse for them trailing by 16 at one point in the second half to a Vanderbilt team that is no pushover but still a team they should have handled.

There's still a lot up in the air, but I'm most confident about Tennessee taking a step back on the road. The spread might bounce around, but I'm going to get specific here as there's a chance Auburn blows them out and we have another dud offensive performance. While I expect them to keep it close, what I'm most confident in is Tennessee's offense struggling and going under their team total.

Prediction: Auburn 71, Tennessee 64
Best Bet: Tennessee under 67.5 points (-110 DraftKings Sportsbook)

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