The Kentucky Wildcats just lost to the Florida Gators in Rupp Arena earlier this week and now will host the #5 Tennessee Volunteers.
Tennessee, like Kentucky, lost at home earlier in the week, so both of these teams will look to not go 0-2 as both the Wildcats and Volunteers push to win the SEC Regular Season Title. Tennessee has an outstanding player in Dalton Knecht who is averaging 20.1 points per game this season and much more than that in SEC play. Knecht is the frontrunner to win SEC Player of the Year and will be a handful for a struggling Kentucky defense to stop.
Clearly, ESPN doesn’t believe the Wildcats will stop Knecht in this game, as their matchup predictor metrics give the Wildcats a 42.3% chance to win this game in Rupp Arena. KenPom’s metrics love Tennessee on offense and defense, meaning there aren’t any weaknesses on this team. Kentucky has played really well against top-ten opponents this season and will look to do it again against their biggest SEC rival.
Coach Calipari had this to say about whether he will have his full roster against Tennessee and how good the Vols are, “I don’t know about if we will have a full roster. But, you know, we have got no choice. They are coming in. They’re really good. They’re really veteran. They have got a couple, really — guys that can just break you down and score. Rick does a great job. You know, like, this — if anybody watched this game, they were — this was a fun game to watch. It was not a fun game to coach. But to watch the game and how the guys went at each other and, you know, wide open kind of game, and they broke us down. Their guard was able to jump over our guards and I thought we fouled a couple jump shooters. Again, that’s four points. In a game like that, that is huge.”