Tennessee vs. Kentucky prediction, picks, odds for 2025 men's NCAA Tournament Sweet 16
Tennessee vs. Kentucky prediction, picks, odds for 2025 men's NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 It's Tennessee vs. Kentucky in the 2025 NCAA Tournament Sweet 16. See our expert picks and predictions for the March Madness bracket, along with how to watch and game time.
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1 seeds Florida & Duke prep for Elite 8 against Texas Tech & Alabama
Mackenzie Salmon breaks down Elite 8 matchups, as No. 1 Florida will take on No. 3 Texas Tech and No. 1 Duke will verse No. 2 Alabama.
Sports Seriously
The Sweet 16 of the men's 2025 NCAA Tournament continues Friday night with an all-SEC matchup in the Midwest region as the March Madness bracket officially gets whittled down to eight teams heading into the weekend.
The Tennessee Volunteers earned a No. 2 seed in the 2025 March Madness bracket and defeated the Wofford Terriers in the first round and the UCLA Bruins in the second round to reach this point. Tennessee's opponent, the 3-seeded Kentucky Wildcats, advanced after defeating both the Troy Trojans and the Illinois Fighting Illini.
Tennessee ranks as the fifth-best team in the KenPom rankings, sporting the 17th-best offense and third-best defense. Meanwhile, Kentucky ranks 15th overall with the 11th-ranked offense and 45th-ranked defense. Tennessee lost both of its regular-season meetings against Kentucky during SEC play this year.
Here's how our experts see Friday's Sweet 16 clash playing out. Be sure to check out the complete March Madness 2025 Sweet 16 schedule, times and TV info.
Tennessee vs. Kentucky picks and predictions
Three of our four experts are expecting Tennessee to continue dancing into the Elite Eight. Only USA TODAY's Craig Meyer is predicting Kentucky to win and advance. However, AZ Central's Jeremy Cluff and Louisville Courier Journal's Ryan Black are both taking Kentucky to cover the 4.5-point spread. That leaves Knoxville News Sentinel's Mike Wilson as the lone wolf laying the points with the Volunteers. Meyer and Wilson are taking the under 144.5-point total, while Cluff and Black are on the over.
Tennessee vs. Kentucky date, start time, where to watch
Game Day: Friday, March 28, 2025
Friday, March 28, 2025 Game Time: 7:39 p.m. ET
7:39 p.m. ET Location: Lucas Oil Stadium (Indianapolis)
Lucas Oil Stadium (Indianapolis) TV Channel: TBS, truTV
TBS, truTV Live Stream: Sling TV - Watch Now!
Watch Tennessee vs. Kentucky on Sling TV
Tennessee vs. Kentucky odds
Odds as of Friday, March 28 via BetMGM.
Spread: Tennessee (-4.5)
Tennessee (-4.5) Moneyline Favorite: Tennessee -210
Tennessee -210 Moneyline Underdog: Kentucky +170
Kentucky +170 Total: 144.5
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The Grade A shots count tell the story of this game. Edmonton was the better team in the first, seven Grade A shots to four for the Panthers. Florida was the better team in the second, five Grade A shots for them to two for the Oilers. And Edmonton dominated after that, 10 Grade A shots to three for the Oilers. In the end, this game wasn't that close, Edmonton with 19 Grade A shots, Florida with 12. Edmonton deserved this win, full stop. 2. Edmonton came out hitting, showing Florida they will not be pushed around and will be doing plenty of the pushing. The presence of a healthy Evander Kane, who made key physical plays around the net on two Oilers goals, was critical for the Oilers. Kane took up where Zach Hyman left off, throwing nine hits, a few of them punishing ones, including a nasty shot on top Florida d-man Aaron Ekblad early in the game. What Kane brings to the Final — what he couldn't bring last year due to injury — is invaluable. Every Oilers is two inches taller and twenty pounds heavier when they're on the ice with him, but he's got plenty of back-up as well with Vasily Podkolzin, Darnell Nurse, Corey Perry, Trent Frederic and a line-up full of committed, determined veterans. 3. Florida showed in the second that their forechecking can take over a game. The persistent onslaught and aggressive pinching by the Florida d-men at the offensive blueine was unlike anything the Oilers had faced in the 2025 playoffs. But it failed to result in enough greasy goals for Florida. To win, the Panthers needed one more shot to bounce in off someone or something. 4. After the game Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch insisted that he'd make the same coach's challenge again that he did on Florida's first goal. I hope not. Perhaps Knoblauch had yet to see the complete replay, but it was clear that Bennett was tripped up by Brett Kulak's skate and fell into Stuart Skinner due to that. Was Bennett looking for that contact, looking for an excuse to flop into Skinner? Maybe. Likely. But the skate-on-skate happened, it tripped up Bennett and it was an iffy challenge at best. The Oilers should own that. They screwed up. 5. As for any suggestion that the Oilers cheated, I don't get it. Fans of both teams were mad about the referees. I saw a Mikkola slew foot on McDavid that I didn't like. But Florida fans were up in arms about an alleged Oilers too-many-men-on-the-ice situation that they felt the refs missed. Such is playoff hockey. Nosek's penalty was a clear and obvious call to make, and one that the refs couldn't pretend they didn't see. 6. The winning goal was a thing of beauty, a testament to the calm, the cool, the experience and the brilliant skill of the Oilers power players. It started with the trademark Ryan Nugent-Hopkins backhand back pass off-the-boards to Evan Bouchard at the blueline (how many times have we seen that play?), then saw RNH and Perry both make no-look backhand passes, climaxing in Connor McDavid setting up Leon Draisaitl for his Executioner's Shot. The deadliest duo and the most lethal shot in hockey struck again. Draisaitl scores on 34 per cent of his Executioner's Shots that hit the net, something we've been tracking at the Cult since 2019-20.
