Joe Lunardi was busy as ever on the final day of February, with March Madness beckoning and a litany of teams battling for seeding and plain survival.
The ESPN bracketologist released his list of “Bracket Games” for a frenzied Saturday, in other words the key games that will swing seeding for the NCAA Tournament. Not surprisingly, Saturday night’s showdown in Knoxville between No. 17 Alabama and No. 22 Tennessee was on Lunardi’s list, with the Crimson Tide and Volunteers being near the top of the SEC standings as they collide at 6 p.m. ET on ESPN.
Alabama entered Saturday tied for 2nd place in the SEC with Arkansas at 11-4, with Tennessee right behind at 10-5. Their conference records are almost identical and so are their overall marks, with the Crimson Tide at 21-7 and the Volunteers at 20-8.
The programs have a long basketball history together and also a recent one, with Tennessee firing the first shot this season with a huge primetime victory in Tuscaloosa back on Jan. 24. So, Alabama is seeking payback in Knoxville, and Lunardi laid out just how big it would be for either team to emerge with a victory as they enter the month of March.
At this very moment, Lunardi has Bama as a 4 seed, in the West Region to be exact. He has Tennessee among the 4 teams right below the 4-seed line. In other words, the Vols would be a 5 seed right now in Lunardi’s world, and he wrote this line about how Saturday night’s result would affect those seedings:
“A protected (Top 4) seed is on the line for both teams,” Lunardi wrote in his “Bracketology report” for Saturday.
Intensity will be running high on Saturday night in Knoxville, and in a lot of other venues. Here is Lunardi’s full report:
Here is how Kalshi currently sees Saturday night’s huge SEC showdown in Knoxville:
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.
