Tennessee vs. Kentucky Preview

Tonight the Vols travel to #1 Kentucky to take on the Wildcats in one of the toughest places to play in the country, Rupp Arena. Kentucky is 473 – 60 in Rupp since it opened in 1976. Tennessee has not won in Rupp since 2006 and is 4-32 all time there. The Vols are still looking for their first road win tonight. Kentucky comes into the game as the #1 team in the country. In their last meeting, the Vols took Kentucky to the wire in the Tommy Bowl before falling 65-62. What are each team’s chances? Let’s take a look

Why Kentucky will Win: 

Why not? They are the best team in the country. Year in, year out, they recruit NBA talent and will likely take the floor with 5 or more NBA athletes each game. The cats are scoring 78.1 ppg and playing stiff defense, which has been a large part for their rise to the # 1 spot. It’s hard to say who the “leader” of this Kentucky team is because there are so many stars in the line up. Doron Lamb scores 13.5 per game, and is shooting 46% from beyond the arc. Anthony Davis is a monster on the boards and has an incredible unibrow, Marcquis Teague and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist both offer contributions that would be worthy of a top player on any other team in the country and John Callipari is trying to get Terrence Jones involved more.

I’ll say it again, why won’t this Kentucky team win? Tennessee has struggled on the road, and that’s being nice. Their last venture out of Knoxville saw them get shellacked by Vanderbilt 65-47, and their offense has struggled all season. It’s tough to win on the road when you can’t score.

Why Tennessee Will Win:

The only chance Tennessee has of winning this game is irony. Tennessee has yet to win a road game this season, it would be the most ironic situation ever if they’re first and only road win so far came at the toughest possible place to get said win, and against a rival like Kentucky. The Vols have shown they can play with top teams, sometimes. In the Maui Invitational, Tennessee hung with then #7 Duke before falling 77-67. They took then #8 Memphis to double OT, they fell to #17 Pitt 61-56 at home, beat #14 Florida by ten, lost to #20 Mississippi State 62-58, beat #11 UCONN at home, and in the first matchup of these two teams, the Vols lost by three.

There are two different Tennessee teams that exist. The team that beat Florida and UCONN and the team that lost to Austin-Peay and Georgia. Which team will show up? There’s no telling but the fact that it’s on the road leads me to think the latter will be present tonight. The Vols will have to play out of their minds tonight, especially on offense, which has been a struggle all season (Tennessee is currently 148th in Division I in scoring with 69.6 ppg).

I see the Wildcats taking this one fairly easy, it’s safe to say I would be shocked if Tennessee won. If they hung around and played some alright ball, I would be surprised, but it’s not totally out of question. This team has been very good at some points, but it’s also been very bad. You can catch the game on ESPNU at 7 pm Eastern Time. While your watching the game, feel free to drop by and leave a comment on the action.