On Friday, 10-seed Lady Vols basketball will get its 2026 NCAA Tournament run started with a matchup against 7-seed NC State. The game will air on ESPN at 8 p.m. ET.
Ahead of the matchup, Vegas released its betting lines for the game. ESPN listed Tennessee as a 1.5-point favorite to open the game. However, in the days since, the Wolfpack have moved to 1.5-point favorites.
The over/under point total for the game is at 151.5 combined points.
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This will be a rematch for the Lady Vols and NC State. The teams opened the 2025-26 season with a matchup in Greensboro, North Carolina, that the Wolfpack won 80-77.
“I think that they guard better than they did game one,” Tennessee head coach Kim Caldwell said about NC State ahead of the rematch. “I think that they rebound better, I think that they have, again, two dominant guards. And obviously, on the inside, we didn’t do a very good job rebounding with Khamil (Pierre) and we have to fix that.”
The winner of the Round of 64 matchup will get the winner between 2-seed Michigan and 15-seed Holy Cross. That game will be played just before UT’s game on Friday. Each of these games in the first two rounds of the tournament will be played on the Wolverines’ home floor in Ann Arbor.
Caldwell is looking to steer her team to back-to-back Sweet 16 appearances after reaching the round as a 5-seed in her first season a year ago. However, the team finished the regular season on the wrong foot, dropping seven straight games and 10 of their last 12.
