Tennessee may have clinched the SEC title, but Saturday’s game with Kentucky is huge
Tennessee took some of the drama out of Saturday. Rick Barnes’ Vols beat South Carolina 66-59 in Columbia on Wednesday night to clinch the SEC regular season title outright and nail down the No. 1 seed for next week’s conference tournament in Nashville.
That’s not to say Saturday’s Kentucky-Tennessee matchup with a 4 p.m. tipoff at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville isn’t a big game. You could make the argument it’s huge.
Having locked up the top seed for the conference tournament, Tennessee is gunning for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Vols are ranked No. 5 in the NCAA NET rankings and No. 4 in the AP poll. Ken Pomeroy’s abacus has Tennessee at No. 5 in adjusted overall efficiency. A season sweep of UK would only help the Vols’ cause.
Kentucky has its own causes, too. A victory Saturday and John Calipari’s club is the likely No. 2 seed in the league tourney with a double-bye in Music City. Lose on Rocky Top and the Cats are the likely No. 5 seed, meaning Kentucky would have to play an extra game, starting Thursday.
There’s more to it than that, however. This is when you want to be playing your best basketball. And were it not for that last-second loss at LSU, these young Wildcats would be on a seven-game win streak. Included in that is a convincing 70-59 win at Auburn, a 117-95 thumping of then SEC-leading Alabama and a 91-89 triumph at Mississippi State.
Wednesday night, Senior Night at Rupp Arena, the Cats handled their business against Vanderbilt in an impressive way. Here’s why: Kentucky was not at its best, at least through the first 25 minutes, but turned on the jets for a 93-77 victory.
No matter how many times we’ve seen it happen this season, the explosiveness of this Kentucky team continues to be a sight to behold.
After dominating the Commodores 109-77 in Nashville last month, the Cats found themselves trailing Jerry Stackhouse’s team 30-25 with just under five minutes left int he first half. That’s when Rob Dillingham took over. By the time the half was done, the freshman guard had scored 12 points, assisted on another made field goal and — voila — Kentucky had scored on eight straight possessions for a 45-40 lead at the break.
Same thing in the second half. Vandy was hanging in, down just 55-52 with 13:43 to go, when Dillingham hit the on button again. This time, he scored 11 points over 3:57 and Kentucky had some breathing room with a 68-55 lead.
“I just think he’s so shifty,” Stackhouse said afterward. “I think that’s the word that I would describe him.”
Those spurts could be tougher to come by Saturday. After all, Tennessee is the nation’s third-best defensive team, according to kenpom. Yes, thanks to the addition of SEC Player of the Year favorite Dalton Knecht, and the development of forward Jonas Aidoo, the Vols are better offensively than they’ve been recently, but Barnes still preaches defense. The Vols are fifth nationally defending the 2-point shot, 19th defending the 3.
Wait a minute, is Knecht the favorite for league POY? That’s probably true considering he’s the best player on the team that has proven to be the best of the 18-game schedule. But UK’s Antonio Reeves should receive his fair share of consideration for the top spot on those ballots.
Reeves scored 20 points Wednesday. It was his 18th game of 20-or-more points this season. It was the 29th time in 30 games he has scored in double figures. He also dished four assists and tied Adou Thiero for the team lead in rebounds with six.
“I’ve come a long way from just trying to run down the court,” he said Wednesday with a smile.
Now’s the time for Kentucky to prove it has come a long way since that 103-92 loss to the Vols back on Feb. 3 at Rupp. As Calipari likes to say, it’s only a big game if you win. But for both Kentucky and Tennessee on Saturday, a win would be huge.
