The Tennessee Volunteers are set to play the Florida Atlantic Owls in the Sweet 16 of the 2023 NCAA Tournament on March 23.
Tennessee vs Florida Atlantic: 2023 NCAA Tournament game preview, TV schedule
Tennessee
The No. 4 seeded Tennessee Volunteers (25-10) are fresh off defeating the No. 5 seeded Duke Blue Devils (27-9) in the Round of 32 on March 18 in Orlando, Fla.
Before defeating Duke, Tennessee had to get past the No. 13-seeded Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns in the Round of 64.
A game that Tennessee controlled ended closely with the final score being 58-55.
Tyreke Key led the Volunteers in points scored, scoring 12.
In the Round of 32 against Duke, senior Olivier Nkamhoua set the roof on fire for Tennessee finishing the game with 27 points and five rebounds.
Tennessee went 40.4% from the field and 42.9% from behind the three-point arc.
The Volunteers knocked off Duke 65-52 and advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time since the 2019 tournament.
Florida Atlantic
Florida Atlantic may be a No. 9 seed but those Owls are no joke as they finished the regular season with a 28-3 record.
Finishing the regular season 25 games over .500% is pretty good if you ask me.
The Owls swept the Conference USA Tournament and won the championship easily, defeating UAB 78-56.
Many suggested that Florida Atlantic was winning because of its schedule being weak but the Owls are currently proving they can win on the big stage.
The Owls opened its 2023 NCAA Tournament run in Columbus, Ohio against the No. 8 Memphis Tigers and started as +110 underdogs before ultimately defeating Memphis 66-65.
Let me remind you that Memphis won the American Conference Tournament and beat the No. 1 seed in the tournament, the Houston Cougars.
Against Memphis, sophomore Giancarlo Rosado dropped 15 points for FAU and sophomore Johnell Davis helped by scoring 12 points.
Florida Atlantic’s Nicholas Boyd scored in the winding seconds of the game and FAU defeated the Tigers 66-65 winning its first-ever NCAA Tournament game.
In the Round of 32, Florida Atlantic beat the heavy-hearted Fairleigh Dickinson Knights, 78-70.
Fairleigh Dickinson was coming off beating the No. 1 seed in the tournament, the Purdue Boilermakers.
The game between the Knights and Owls had the potential to be considered “the game of the tournament” as each team played extremely fast and gritty.
Both teams shot a total of 62 three-pointers combined and each team went 9-31 from behind the three-point arc.
Florida Atlantic’s Davis had his second-best scoring game of the season at the right time, scoring 29 points.
Tennessee vs. Florida Atlantic 2023 NCAA Tournament TV schedule
On March 23 when the Volunteers and Owls go at it, it is going to be an offensive clash as the Owls are averaging 78.1 points per game compared to Tennessee’s 71.2.
Luckily for the Volunteers though, they are third in the NCAA in points against average as they only allow teams to score an average of 53.5 points on them.
Tipoff is set for 9:00 P.M. inside the world’s most famous arena, Madison Square Garden, and can be viewed on TBS.