Tennessee seemed like a typical blowout between a three-seed and an eleven-seed but it was more of a tale of two halves than anything.
After Middle Tennessee had a 36-32 lead at the half and it looked like an upset was brewing in the Pete Maravich Center, LSU outscored the Blue Raiders 51-20 in the second half to catapult the Tigers to the Sweet Sixteen. This is the first time that LSU was able to advance to the Sweet 16 in consecutive seasons since 2013-14.
A large reason why LSU was able to win this game was because it was able to get Middle Tennessee in foul trouble early.