Wednesday night’s game between the Tennessee Volunteers and Alabama Crimson Tide might have seemed like an event which had no connection at all to USC’s bubble situation.
After all, the Vols and Bama are both NCAA Tournament locks, playing in the SEC. Arkansas-Texas A&M and Kentucky-Mississippi State were the two SEC bubble games from Wednesday. This was not a bubble game.
However, USC had a keen interest in this contest for a very simple reason: The Trojans played Tennessee earlier in the season. With the Vols losing to Vanderbilt and Missouri, the value of having Tennessee on the schedule was falling. USC really needed Tennessee to beat No. 1 Alabama and restore its overall position in college basketball.
Mission accomplished.
Tennessee defeated the top-ranked Tide, 68-59. Vols Wire has the story:
“Santiago Vescovi and Zakai Zeigler scored 15 points to lead Tennessee. Jonas Aidoo recorded 12 points and 11 rebounds. Zeigler posted eight assists and Vescovi finished the contest with eight rebounds and one assist for Tennessee. Uros Plavsic finished with 10 points for the Vols.”
Had Tennessee lost to Alabama, the Vols might have fallen to a No. 3 seed for the NCAA Tournament. This result pulls UT back to a No. 2 seed and will boost USC’s metrics (alongside the Vols’ own analytical profile).
On the bubble, every degree of leverage helps.
What would help the most, of course, is if USC could unfurl a four-game winning streak.
[mm-video type=video id=01gsdcq59c7vfsbf18c9 playlist_id=none player_id=01f5k5y2jb3twsvdg4 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01gsdcq59c7vfsbf18c9/01gsdcq59c7vfsbf18c9-92eeac079f963e493c3084eaa875bf4f.jpg]
[lawrence-auto-related count=1 tag=696090524]