Tennessee @ Florida State preview

After easy victories at home in the first two rounds of the Emerald Coast Classic, No. 16 Tennessee and Florida State go on the road to Niceville, Fla., for a semifinal matchup Friday night. The winner extends its winning streak to six and moves on to the championship game to face the Purdue-VCU victor on Saturday, with the losers battling in a consolation match.

"I don't think the NCAA committee, when you start talking NCAA Tournament, is looking at who wins tournaments," Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes told reporters. "They are looking at your whole body of work, so each and every game is very important in these tournaments." This is the fifth straight year that Tennessee participated in an early-season tournament and the Volunteers have used the strong competition to kick start their seasons and build their resumes. That's something Florida State is anxious to do after being left off the polls once again despite winning five in a row after a season-opening loss to Pittsburgh. "Since the Pitt game, we’ve done nothing but improve each week," said junior guard Trent Forrest after the Seminoles rolled to a lopsided 113-56 victory over Chicago State on Monday. "We're winning games like we're supposed to win. It was definitely a hard pill to swallow today to see (the polls) come out and we're still not in there, and teams we've beat are still ahead of us. It's a little motivation for us to keep pushing forward."

TV: 7 p.m. ET, CBS Sports Network.

ABOUT TENNESSEE (5-0): One game after joining Tennessee's 1,000-point club, senior guards Jordan Bowden and Lamonte Turner each recorded their first career double-doubles as Bowden totaled 13 points and a career-high 12 rebounds, while Turner chimed in with 17 points and 12 assists in Monday's 58-46 win over rival Chattanooga. Freshman guard Josiah-Jordan James also had his second straight memorable outing with 11 rebounds Monday after notching 13 five days earlier against Alabama State. Led by Turner's 9.2 assists per game, the Volunteers have assisted on 70.7 percent of their field goals this season, which ranks second in the country behind Texas Tech.

ABOUT FLORIDA STATE (5-1): The Seminoles expect to get a big piece of their puzzle back as their third-leading scorer, M.J. Walker (11.3 ppg), missed the last three games. Sophomore guard Devin Vassell and freshman forward Patrick Williams led the way with 16 points each for a Florida State team that shot 65.5 percent from the floor and 43.5 percent (10-of-23) from 3-point range in the rout of Chicago State, while RaiQuan Gray returned from a two-game absence (injury) to tie freshman Balsa Koprivica with a team-high seven rebounds. Head coach Leonard Hamilton went deep into his bench to give players valuable playing time against Chicago State and 11 Seminoles played at least 14 minutes, with eight scoring at least eight points and five pulling down at least four rebounds.

TIP-INS

1. Tennessee owns a 5-3 edge in the all-time series with Florida State, but the teams are 1-1 in neutral site games.

2. The Volunteers have held their last two opponents below 50 points and no team has scored more than 63 against Tennessee this year.

3. Hamilton has led the Seminoles to four in-season tournament championships in his 18 seasons as head coach, with its most recent title coming at the 2017 Jamaica Classic.

PREDICTION: Tennessee 68, Florida State 65