South Carolina vs Tennessee Odds, Player Props, Predictions (Jan. 30)

• The South Carolina Gamecocks visit the #5 Tennessee Volunteers on Tuesday night
• Both teams are within half a game of the SEC lead
• See the South Carolina vs Tennessee odds, predictions, and player props for Jan. 30

On Tuesday night in Knoxville, the #5 Tennessee Volunteers (15-4, 10-0 home, 8-10-1 ATS) will host the South Carolina Gamecocks (17-3, 3-2 away, 15-5 ATS) at Thompson-Boling Arena at 6:30 pm ET.

Despite South Carolina’s gaudy 17-3 record on the season, the Gamecocks head to Knoxville as massive 14.5-point underdogs in Tuesday’s college basketball odds.

South Carolina vs Tennessee Odds

The Volunteers are a prohibitively short -1250 on the moneyline with the Gamecocks coming back as +750 road underdogs. The total is sitting at 136.5. Tennessee is 11-8 over/under this season while slow-tempo South Carolina is 9-10-1.

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After starting the year as a +4000 bet to win the national championship in the March Madness odds, Tennessee has soared into the top-ten favorites at +1729 as of last week.

Alabama is atop the SEC standings at 6-1. The Vols (5-1) can move into a share of the lead with a win, while the Gamecocks (5-2) can move within half a game of the Tide.

South Carolina Brings Three-Game Win Streak to Knoxville

Playing a fairly weak schedule, the Gamecocks rolled through non-conference play with a 12-1 record, their only loss coming in a true road game at Clemson  (72-67). With ten of their wins coming against teams outside of KenPom’s top 150, South Carolina’s wasn’t turning many heads.

Their 5-2 start to SEC play, however, has boosted the Gamecocks from 66th to 53rd in the KenPom ratings, and they now own resume-building wins over #32 Mississippi State (68-62 home) and #20 Kentucky (79-62 home).

Last time out, they used an early 16-3 run to open a lead they would not surrender in a 72-64 win over Missouri. The win came despite leading scorer Meechie Johnson (15.7 PPG) failing to score a single point in 24 minutes of action. Six-eight Wofford transfer BJ Mack had a team-high 21 on 6-of-11 shooting.

Playing at the 348th-fastest tempo in Division I, Lamont Paris’ Gamecocks are surrendering just 64.5 PPG, 28th out of 362 teams.

Tennessee Dismantling Good Teams

Since a three-game losing streak to Purdue, Kansas, and UNC in late November, Tennessee has gone 11-1, including eight wins at Thompson Boling to improve its home record to a perfect 10-0 on the season.

The Vols carry a four-game overall win streak into Tuesday night, with their past three wins all coming by at least 13 points: 85-66 home win over Florida; 91-71 home win over Alabama; 75-62 road win over Vanderbilt.

Northern Colorado transfer Dalton Knecht has continued his ascent into the upper echelons of the college game. Averaging 19.5 PPG for the season, the 6’6 guard has dropped at least 25 in five straight games, including a trio of 30-plus-point performances. His team-high 32 against Vanderbilt came on 62% shooting from the field (13-of-21). He’s now second only to Zach Edey in the Wooden Award odds, though it’s a distant second with the Purdue big man at -700.

The absolute demolitions of UF and Bama moved the Vols up to fourth in the KenPom ratings. While they’re playing at a considerably faster pace than last season (104th versus 288th), they defence hasn’t suffered a lick. Rick Barnes’ team sits second in the nation in defensive efficiency.

South Carolina vs Tennessee Player Props

College basketball player props from DraftKings.

Knecht is listed with a point total of 21.5 O/U, eight more than any other player. While that’s two full points higher than his season average, he has, as discussed, scored at least 25 points in each of his last five games and is averaging 32 PPG in that span.

Coming off a zero-point performance against Mizzou, SC’s leading scorer, Meechie Johnson, sees his total drop to just 12.5, which is more than three points below his season average of 15.7 PPG.

South Carolina vs Tennessee Prediction

Tennessee, in particular on its home court, has looked borderline unstoppable. The manner in which they dismantled Alabama, rated seventh at KenPom at the time, was terrifying. Knecht, a true go-to scorer, provides the exact piece the team was missing last season, when they went 25-11 and earned a #4 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

South Carolina is not a pushover. They play at a lethargic pace and have kept 16 of 20 opponents under 70 points this season. They are going to make every effort to turn this game into a plodding, defensive struggle – everything they failed to do against Alabama while getting blown out 74-47.

I don’t love either side of this spread, but I do like the first-half under for South Carolina at 27.5 points.

SC vs TENN pick: South Carolina under 27.5 points in the first half (+100) on the DraftKings Sportsbook app.