First Four Continues with Iowa vs Tennessee from Dayton, Ohio

First Four Continues with Iowa vs Tennessee from Dayton, Ohio

Hawkeyes return to tourney for first time in eight years

Just two months ago, the Hawkeyes held the number-10 spot in the national rankings from the Associated Press. Iowa received one of the final at-large bids to the tournament after losing six of their final seven games of the season. They enter this game on a three-game losing streak. Head coach Fran McCaffery is flying to the game just prior to game-time due to his son having surgery earlier in the day.

Volunteers in tourney for seventh time in nine years

Tennessee is back in the NCAA tournament. The last time they made an appearance they dropped a game to Michigan in 2011. Both of these teams played in a tournament back in November in the Bahamas, but never faced each other. They still hold the scouting reports from that tournament, but the teams have changed so much since then that they do not matter right now. If Tennessee can stay close, they might be able to exploit the Hawkeyes in the second half.

The oddsmakers at Sportsbook.ag have the Hawkeyes from Iowa as road chalk in this First Four contest Wednesday night. Despite their recent struggles, we like Iowa to win this game as we lay the line with 10 percent of our bankroll over Tennessee. We are ready for the main portion of the tournament to begin, but we have to get these games out of the way first.