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Tennessee basketball: Ranking Vols 10 homes wins vs. top 5 Kentucky teams

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - JANUARY 24: Tennessee Volunteers players celebrate after defeating the Kentucky Wildcats at Thompson-Boling Arena on January 24, 2017 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tennessee defeated Kentucky 82-80. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - JANUARY 24: Tennessee Volunteers players celebrate after defeating the Kentucky Wildcats at Thompson-Boling Arena on January 24, 2017 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tennessee defeated Kentucky 82-80. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images
Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images /

Tennessee basketball has 10 victories in its history at home against a Kentucky Wildcats team in the top 5. Here is our ranking of those Volunteers wins.

On Saturday, Tennessee basketball will attempt to do something it has only done 11 times in school history: beat the Kentucky Wildcats while they are ranked in the top 5. Of those 11 wins, 10 have come at home.

Now, that many wins against one school when they’re in the top 5 would actually seem like a lot. But given the fact that Kentucky has maybe the most storied men’s basketball program ever and the fact that they play UT every year, the Wildcats have been in the top 5 a lot.

In fact, they have played Tennessee basketball 59 times, and hold a 48-11 record, while ranked in the top 5. Even in Knoxville, they have a 17-10 record while ranked in the top 5. Simply put, Kentucky is tough to beat when they are a highly ranked team.

But if the Vols want their goals to stay in front of them, that’s the task ahead of them Saturday evening. And the good news is there is significant historical precedent for them to be able to beat this Kentucky team on Rocky Top.

In this post, we’re going to rank the 10 wins the Vols have enjoyed over top 5 Kentucky teams in Knoxville. These victories date back 60 years plus, and there’s at least one win in every decade for them since the 1950s with the major exception, believe it or not, of 2000 to 2009.

Our criteria for these rankings is mainly how highly ranked Kentucky was at the time of the UT victory. But we’ll also include the thrill of the game itself, the level of the upset, and the impact it had on the overall season.

As you’ll see, some of these wins played a huge role in what the Vols accomplished that specific year. Others were just exciting upsets at the time. Either way, all of these games were memorable in some way or another.

So as they look to make it 11 wins on Saturday, let’s go ahead and look back at what the Vols will turn to for precedence against Kentucky. This is our ranking of Tennessee basketball’s 10 wins at home over the Wildcats when they were ranked in the top 5.

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