Kentucky-Tennessee will be a ‘roughhouse game’ (and other UK takeaways)

Five takeaways from Kentucky’s media session previewing Saturday’s game against No. 1 Tennessee:

▪ John Calipari endorsed the idea that a 19-game winning streak and No. 1 ranking translates that Tennessee is good. He emphasized rebounding in what he said would be a “roughhouse game.”

▪ Ashton Hagans has not played as well of late: one steal in the last two games (56 minutes). Calipari suggested that Hagans had hit the metaphorical freshman wall. UK will need him to play well again on Saturday.

▪ Calipari, plus EJ Montgomery and Keldon Johnson dismissed the notion of Kentucky suffering a hangover after the loss to LSU on a controversial last-second tip-in. That’s no issue going forward.

▪ Tennessee forces opponents to make jump shots. It would be a good time for Kentucky to live up to Calipari’s repeated insistence that this is his best-shooting team.

▪ If Kentucky loses, the Cats would fall three games behind Tennessee with six to go in the SEC regular-season race. Big deal? Medium-sized deal? No deal? Calipari said it’d be less than no deal.

This story was originally published February 15, 2019 at 3:36 PM.