Sweet 16 Matchup: Tennessee vs. Louisville

In quite possibly the best game of the sweet 16 match-up, the number 2 seeded Tennessee Volunteers take on the number 3 seeded Louisville Cardinals. This should be an exciting game that will be a tight match to the bitter end. To see who's going to pull out a win, let's take a look at a couple of things: regular season and the tournament.

The Regular Season

During the regular season, the Tennessee Volunteers had a great season. They won the SEC conference outright and compiled a 31-4 record. Their only loses all came to quality teams all of whom made it to the NCAA tournament: Texas, who made it to the sweet 16; Arkansas who made it to the second round; Vanderbilt, a four seed who was upset by Siena; and UK who was knocked out by Marquette. The Volunteers are ranked by the AP poll and the Coaches poll as the number 6 team in the nation. Tennessee has had some huge wins this season including giving Memphis their only loss during the season as well as beating Xavier, Gonzaga, West Virginia and the surprising sweet 16 team from Western Kentucky. Xavier and West Virginia are also in the sweet 16. So Tennessee has had a tough season and did extremely well. This is going to help them in tough games during the tournament.

Louisville didn't have quite as good of a regular season as the Volunteers, but it was still quite good. However, it was injuries and trying to get used to a 2-3 defensive zone that cost them some early loses. In their final 13 games, their only loses came to Connecticut and Georgetown. At the time, it looked like those were very good teams that were going to go deep into the tournament. However, U Conn, a # 4 seed, was upset by USD and Georgetown, a # 2 seed, was upset in the second round by the #10 seeded team from Davidson. The Cardinals key is their defense, ranking 6th in the nation in regards to field-goal percentage by allowing teams to only average 38.2% of their shots.

The Tournament

Tennessee had a fairly easy round 1 match-up and easily took care of American University. However, they were taken to the brink in their second round match-up with Butler. Tennessee eventually won in overtime, but Butler was very aggressive and slowed down the pace of the Volunteers. Tennessee however was able to adapt and beat a team that quite a few commentators thought could beat Tennessee. So Tennessee has been tested quite a bit but they have prevailed and continue on their march towards the final four.

Louisville has done quite well so far easily dispatching of BSU and Oklahoma. Winning by an average of 24 points per game. It looks like their team is really starting to come together during the tournament and is poised to continue their march to the final four as well.

The Match-up

When these two face each other it is going to be a battle. Tennessee likes to run it up and down the court and score a lot of points. Louisville likes to press teams in a full court battle and try to get as many turnovers as they can while preventing their opponents from scoring. However, Louisville's defense is not a good match-up for this game. Since Tennessee prefers to do a more running up the court instead of a half-court offense, having the full-court press that Louisville likes will only help them. It will allow Tennessee to keep running and running instead of having to sit back and set up a half-court offense. As seen during the regular season, if Tennessee gets over 80 points, they are almost unbeatable. Louisville also tends to rely too much on 3-point shooting from their guards. As seen by the Duke lose to West Virginia, you live by the sword and you die by the sword. In the end, Tennessee's offense is just going to be too much for Louisville to contain. It will be a good game and a close one for most of the time, but with Tennessee pulling out a victory.

Final score: Tennessee: 87; Louisville: 82.