ESPN Analytics believes in a little something called momentum, apparently.
Because despite being at home in Wednesday night’s SEC collision, ESPN’s BPI believes Georgia might be in a little trouble as the Bulldogs welcome Tennessee in a 7 p.m. ET tipoff from Athens. It’ll be a spotlight game on SEC Network, and it’ll be a prime chance for Georgia to bounce back from last Saturday’s blowout loss at Texas.
The 20-point setback in Austin dropped the Dawgs to 16-4 overall and 4-3 in the SEC. And while Georgia is licking its wounds as Wednesday night’s tip approaches, Tennessee wants to keep its road momentum going in the aftermath of Saturday night’s 79-73 victory at Alabama in a national TV spotlight showdown on ESPN that ruined the return of Charles Bediako.
Instead of Bediako and the Tide running off with the win, it was Tennessee that stole the Saturday night script, with freshman Nate Ament pouring in a career-high 29 points and Ja’K Gillespie adding 23. It wasn’t enough to get the Vols ranked in Monday’s new AP Poll, but it got Tennessee back to .500 in the SEC at 3-3 to go with a 13-6 overall mark.
Now, Tennessee will go for 2 huge road SEC wins in a matter of 5 days, and the Volunteers are slightly favored to get that done on Wednesday night in Athens. ESPN’s BPI is in agreement with that spread, giving the Vols a 54.2% chance to prevail on the road again and head home with a ton of momentum this weekend.
Meanwhile, momentum is something Georgia would like to regain after that stinker at Texas over the weekend. It will have the home fans, even if it doesn’t have the BPI’s blessing.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
