Auburn-Tennessee Men’s College Basketball Odds, Lines, Spread and Bet

A best bet from Pat Forde for Saturday’s SEC showdown between Auburn and Tennessee in Knoxville.

A pair of SEC powers and top-25 teams clash Saturday in Knoxville when No. 2 Tennessee welcomes No. 25 Auburn.

I love second-ranked Tennessee in this spot. I see the Vols ready to bounce back with some ferocity after losing at Florida on Wednesday and this is a favorable matchup. Tennessee is the best defensive team in the country, particularly at the three-point line. Opponents are making just 22.5 percent of their threes, and Auburn is a poor three-point shooting team (29.9 percent) — but still takes a fair amount of them, with 35 percent of its attempts coming from distance.

No. 25 Auburn vs. No 2 Tennessee

Game Info: Feb. 4, 2023 | 2 p.m. ET | ESPN

Auburn Straight-Up Record: 17-5 (7-2 SEC)
Auburn Against The Spread Record: 11-11

Tennessee Straight-Up Record: 18-4 (7-2 SEC)
Tennessee Against The Spread Record: 13-9

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Guards Wendell Green and K.D. Johnson will take plenty of bad shots and against Tennessee they will miss plenty of them. Green is 2-of-21 from three in Auburn’s five losses and Johnson is 3-of-19. Thompson-Bowling is a raucous place to play these days; the Tigers are walking into a snake pit against a hungry opponent.

MONEYLINE BET: Tennessee


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Pat Forde
PAT FORDE

Pat Forde is a senior writer for Sports Illustrated who covers college football and college basketball as well as the Olympics and horse racing. He cohosts the College Football Enquirer podcast and is a football analyst on the Big Ten Network. He previously worked for Yahoo Sports, ESPN and The (Louisville) Courier-Journal. Forde has won 28 Associated Press Sports Editors writing contest awards, has been published three times in the Best American Sports Writing book series, and was nominated for the 1990 Pulitzer Prize. A past president of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association and member of the Football Writers Association of America, he lives in Louisville with his wife. They have three children, all of whom were collegiate swimmers.