Conference tournament week is here as low and mid major teams look to punch their ticket to the NCAA Tournament and high major teams look to make a late push to improve their seeding.
The first team to officially punch its ticket to the big dance was not only a team in the Volunteer State but a team that Tennessee faced earlier this season— Tennessee State. The Tigers posted a 15-5 Ohio Valley Conference record to win the regular-season championship.
Tennessee State followed it up with a OVC Conference Tournament Championship with wins over Tennessee-Martin and Morehead State to punch its ticket to the NCAA Tournament.
Tennessee knocked off Tennessee State 89-60 back in November. The Vols jumped out to a massive lead early thanks to Tiger turnovers. They led by 22 points at halftime and coasted in the season half to their fifth straight win to begin the season.
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It was a balanced scoring performance from Tennessee. Ja’Kobi Gillespie led the way with 17 points while Nate Ament and Amaree Abram each added 15 points and DeWayne Brown totaled 13 points. Big man JP Estrella missed the game due to a knee injury.
Former Duke point guard Nolan Smith is in his first year as Tennessee State’s head coach after taking over in the summer when Penny Collins left for an assistant coaching position with the Memphis Grizzlies.
The Tigers are in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1994 and for just the third time in program history. Tennessee State is currently 23-9 with its only power five loss coming against Tennessee. The Tigers had won between 17 and 18 games the last three seasons. They had not won 20 games in a season since their 20-11 season in 2015-16.
In ESPN Joe Lunardi’s latest bracketology update, Tennessee State is a 16-seed in the East Region set to face off against Duke in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.
More to follow: College baseball odds
