First Scouting Report: Can Kentucky snap its road hex at South Carolina?
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Game day: No. 5 Kentucky 66, Alabama 55
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s game between Kentucky and Alabama at Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
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A look ahead to the Kentucky Wildcats’ next men’s basketball game:
The opponent
No. 5 Kentucky (19-4, 8-2 SEC) will face South Carolina (13-9, 4-6 SEC) on Tuesday at Colonial Life Arena (capacity 18,000) in Columbia.
The SEC game will tip off at 7 p.m. (EST) and be telecast by ESPN.
Coach Frank Martin’s Gamecocks lost 81-57 to No. 22 Tennessee on Saturday in Columbia.
Series history
Kentucky leads the all-time series with South Carolina 53-13 but the series is tied 2-2 over the past four meetings.
Most recent meeting
Kentucky freshman Brandon Boston hit six of 10 three-pointers and scored 21 points and graduate-transfer senior Davion Mintz hit six of 11 three-pointers and scored 20 as the Wildcats blitzed visiting South Carolina 92-64 in the 2020-21 regular-season finale on March 6, 2021, at Rupp Arena.
Power rankings
Through Friday’s games, the NCAA’s NET Rankings had Kentucky No. 7 and South Carolina No. 99.
The Kenpom Rankings rated UK No. 4 and South Carolina No. 98.
Kentucky stood No. 7 in the Sagarin Ratings with South Carolina No. 93.
Know your foe
1. Colonial Life Arena has become a bit of a haunted house for Kentucky in the John Calipari coaching era.
Calipari took his first loss as UK coach there in 2009-10 when the Gamecocks — then coached by Tates Creek High School alumnus Darrin Horn — stunned the previously unbeaten and No. 1-ranked Wildcats of John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins 68-62 behind 30 points from Devan Downey.
UK also lost to South Carolina in Columbia in 2013-14, 2017-18 and 2019-20.
Twice, in both 2013-14 and again in 2015-16, Calipari has not been around to see the end of Wildcats-Gamecocks contests in Colonial Life Arena because he’s been ejected.
2. South Carolina has been streaky in SEC play. After starting the conference season 1-1, the Gamecocks lost three straight at Tennessee, vs. Florida and at Arkansas; won three straight over Georgia, Vanderbilt and at Texas A&M; and have now lost two in a row at Mississippi State and vs. Tennessee.
3. The Gamecocks are not a good shooting team. As a team, South Carolina is making 42.5 percent of its field-goal tries, 32.1 percent on three-point attempts and 65.1 percent on foul shots.
Of the Gamecocks’ four leading scorers, only Erik Stevenson (11.3 ppg) and James Reese (10.7) are averaging in double figures and only Reese (42.5 percent) is making more than 40 percent of his field-goal attempts.
This story was originally published February 5, 2022 at 10:21 PM.
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