Tipoff time, TV announced for Tennessee-Louisiana in first round of NCAA Tournament

Tennessee, the No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament’s East Region, will tipoff against No. 13 Louisiana at 9:40 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday in Orlando. The game will be broadcast by CBS.

No. 5 Duke and No. 12 Oral Roberts will start at 7:10 p.m. ET Thursday. The Tennessee-Louisiana winner will face the Duke-Oral Roberts winner in the second round on Saturday.

Tennessee (23-10), the tournament’s No. 14 overall seed, enters the NCAA Tournament with seven losses over its previous 12 games, dating back to February 1. The Vols lost 79-71 to Missouri in the SEC Tournament quarterfinal round on Friday at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.

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Louisiana (26-7) enters on a five-game win streak and is led by 6-foot-11, 225-pound forward Jordan Brown, who averages 19.4 points and 8.7 rebounds per game. Guard Greg Williams Jr. averaged 13.1 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.1 steals per game and forward Terence Lewis II averages 11.0 points and 7.5 rebounds per game.

Louisiana, the No. 54 overall seed in the tournament, is No. 89 in the NET, No. 88 in the KPI rating and No. 67 in ESPN’s Strength of Record. The Cajuns are No. 99 in ESPN’s Basketball Power Index, No. 92 in the KenPom.com rating and No. 97 in the Sagarin rating.

KenPom has Louisiana No. 57 in adjusted offensive efficiency, scoring 112.2 points per 100 possessions, and No. 146 in defensive efficiency, giving up 104.0 points per 100 possessions. 

Louisiana No. 49 in 3-point percentage, No. 85 in 2-point percentage and 320th in free-throw percentage. The Ragin’ Cajuns take 31.7 percent of their shots from the 3-point line, 315th nationally. They’re 305th in 3-pointer in point distribution and 72nd in 2-pointers.

Tennessee as of Sunday was No. 14 in the KPI rating and No. 23 in ESPN’s Strength of Record rating. ESPN’s Basketball Power Index had the Vols at No. 2, while they were No. 6 in the KenPom rating and No. 10 in Sagarin rating. 

Tennessee’s 23 wins came against opponents with an average NET ranking of 130, while the losses came against teams with an average NET ranking of 40. The strength of schedule for the Vols was No. 32 in the NET.

Tennessee as a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament

Tennessee has been a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament three times previously. The Vols in 1981, when the tournament had 48 teams, beat No. 5-seed VCU 58-56 in overtime, then lost to No. 1-seed Virginia 62-48 in the second round. 

In 1999, Tennessee beat No. 13 62-52 in the first round, then lost No. 12 Southwest Missouri State 81-51 in the second round. The Vols went to the Sweet Sixteen as a No. 4 seed in 2000, beating No. 13 Louisiana-Lafayette (63-58) in the first round and UConn (65-51) in the second round. No. 8 North Carolina beat Tennessee 74-69 in the round of sixteen.

The Vols in the NCAA Tournament

Tennessee has been to the NCAA Tournament 24 times in program history and has a 23-25 overall record in the tournament. The Vols have been to the Elite Eight once (2010) and the Sweet Sixteen eight times (1967, 1981, 2000, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2014 and 2019). There have been 17 appearances for Tennessee in the round of 32.

Rick Barnes has a 25-26 record in 26 previous trips to the NCAA Tournament, dating back to 1989. He’s taken the Vols to five straight tournaments after missing the postseason in his first two seasons at Tennessee and COVID cancelling the 2020 tournament. Barnes is 3-4 in NCAA Tournament games at Tennessee.

The Vols were a No. 3 seed in 2018, but lost to No. 11 Loyola-Chicago in the second round. Tennessee was a No. 2 seed in 2019, advancing to the Sweet Sixteen before losing to No. 3 Purdue, and was a No. 5 seed in 2021, losing to No. 12 Oregon State in the first round. The Vols were a No. 3 a year ago, losing to No. 11 Michigan in the second round.