Mercer Bears vs Tennessee Volunteers Prediction, 11/3/2025 College Basketball Picks, Best Bets & Odds

Game: Mercer Bears vs Tennessee Volunteers

Date: Monday, November 3, 2025

Location: Food City Center in Knoxville, TN

TV: SECN+

The Tennessee Volunteers (30-8 last year) are hosting the Mercer Bears (14-19 last season) at Food City Center on Monday.

The Mercer Bears stepped onto the hardwood against Chattanooga and ended up losing by a score of 76-61 in their last contest. Regarding fouls, the Bears walked away with 15 while Chattanooga totaled 15 fouls. They converted 8 out of their 23 attempts from distance. Chattanooga shot 87.5% from the charity stripe by burying 14 of their 16 attempts. On top of that, Chattanooga snagged 34 rebounds (8 offensive, 26 defensive), but didn't record a block for the team. Chattanooga dished out 14 assists and had 13 steals in this matchup. Regarding defense, Mercer allowed their opponent to shoot 47.4% from the floor on 27 out of 57 shooting. They also doled out 7 assists in this matchup as well as creating 12 turnovers and getting 7 steals. Pertaining to grabbing rebounds, they collected 31 with 10 of them being of the offensive sort. At the free throw line, the Bears buried 8 of 12 tries for a rate of 66.7%. Mercer wrapped up the game having earned a 39.7% field goal percentage (23 out of 58) and converted 7 of their 23 shots from beyond the perimeter.

Jah Quinones is someone who came through for this game. He accounted for 17 points on 7 out of 8 shooting. He played for 24 minutes and totaled 3 rebounds. He finished the contest at 87.5% from the floor and distributed 1 assist.

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Mercer will enter this game after finishing with a record of 14-19 last year. They gave up possession 12.1 times per contest and as a unit committed 16.6 personal fouls on a nightly basis. As a group, Mercer pulled down 39.3 boards per game and earned 436 dimes over the course of last season, which was 201st in Division 1 in terms of passing the rock. The Bears connected on 32.2% from downtown (273 of 849) and 65.5% from the free throw line. They had an average of 76.1 pts per contest (112th in the nation) while going 43.5% from the floor.

On the defensive end of the court, the Bears forced their opponents into 12.9 turnovers per contest while drawing 15.8 fouls. They were 277th in D-1 in giving up assists with 472 relinquished throughout last year. The Bears defensively gave up a shooting percentage of 41.9% (853 of 2,037) and they surrendered 38.4 boards per game as a unit. They gave up 34.0% on shots from downtown and they were 281st in D-1 in opponents PPG (75.3).

The last time they took the court, the Tennessee Volunteers took a loss by a final score of 69-50 when they faced Houston. The Volunteers corralled 23 defensive rebounds and 11 offensive boards totaling 34 in this contest. They turned it over 9 times, while getting 3 steals for the game. Houston earned 16 personal fouls for this contest which got the Volunteers to the charity stripe for a total of 20 attempts. They were able to bury 15 of the free throw attempts for a percentage of 75.0%. In terms of 3-pointers, Tennessee buried 5 out of their 29 attempts (17.2%). Overall, the Volunteers ended up shooting 15 out of 52 from the field which gave them a shooting percentage of 28.8%. The Volunteers allowed Houston to make 28 of 66 attempts from the floor which had them at 42.4% in the matchup. They finished shooting 36.0% from distance by shooting 9 of 25 and walked away from this one shooting 4 out of 4 at the charity stripe (100.0%). When talking about team rebounding, Tennessee permitted Houston to get 40 in total (13 offensive).

Chaz Lanier was important for the Volunteers for this contest. He buried 4 out of 18 for the game for a field goal percentage of 22.2%, and had 7 rebounds. He earned 17 points in his 35 mins on the hardwood and totaled 1 assist in this matchup.

Tennessee had a mark of 30-8 last year. As an offense, the Volunteers connected on 45.2% from the field, which ranked them 147th in the nation. Tennessee totaled 2,813 pts over the course of last year (74.0 per contest) and they averaged 36.4 rebounds per game. They dished out assists 15.4 times per contest (61st in D-1) and they turned it over 10.4 times per contest. The Volunteers were responsible for committing 15.2 fouls per game and they connected on 74.5% from the free throw line.

The Volunteers on the defensive side of the court were 10th in D-1 in PPG given up with 63.1. They forced their opponents into 11.5 TO's every game and let teams shoot 38.6% from the field (7th in college). The Tennessee defense conceded 28.7% on 3-pointers (276 of 963) and their opponents knocked down 73.9% of their shots from the charity stripe. They relinquished 10.3 assists and 31.6 total rebounds per game, which ranked them 18th and 30th in the nation.

Who will win tonight's NCAA game against the spread?

Tony Sink's Pick: Take Mercer

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