Mississippi State vs Tennessee prediction

Mississippi State Bulldogs vs Tennessee Volunteers prediction and college basketball game preview.

Mississippi State vs Tennessee Broadcast

Date: Tuesday, January 26
Game Time: 7:00 ET
Venue: Thompson-Boling Arena, Knoxville, TN
Network: SEC Network

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Mississippi State (9-7) vs Tennessee (10-3) Game Preview

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Why Mississippi State Will Win

The Tennessee offense has fallen a bit flat lately.

Call it a lull, but the threes weren’t dropping in the blowout loss at Florida, and the rebounds weren’t there in the loss to Missouri. The Vols aren’t about the three – they need the defense to work to win.

Shoot well from the outside against this group and it works – the Vols win with their defensive pressure, takeaways, and not screwing up.

Mississippi State doesn’t shoot all that well from the outside, and it’s not going to win the turnover margin, but it’ll rebound everything that’s there for the taking. The Bulldogs have to dominate the rebounding margin and have to come up with a whole lot of easy buckets in transition and on the inside because …

Why Tennessee Will Win

Mississippi State isn’t going to shoot well enough from the outside to pull this off.

The Bulldogs were able to beat Florida when they hit just one of eight from beyond the arc, that’s because they rebounded absolutely everything. Tennessee isn’t all that bad on the boards, the defense is okay at clamping down from the outside, and as long as the defensive rebounds are there, it should be fine.

Combine the lack of MSU three point shots and its inability to hit free throws on a regular basis, and …

What’s Going To Happen

This is the slump-buster team for Tennessee.

The Vols have to get physical and can’t get blown away in rebounding margin, but the defense should be able to make up for the occasional power outages on offense. It’ll be a grind, and Mississippi State will put up a good fight, but the shots won’t fall when needed late in the second half.