First Scouting Report: UK seeks its first regular-season sweep of Tennessee since 2012
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Game day: Kentucky 71, Mississippi State 68
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Wednesday night’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Mississippi State at Starkville, Miss.
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A look ahead to the Kentucky Wildcats’ next men’s basketball game:
The opponent
Kentucky (17-9, 8-5 SEC) will face No. 10 Tennessee (20-6, 9-4 SEC) on Saturday, Feb. 18, at Rupp Arena (capacity 20,545) at Central Bank Center in downtown Lexington.
The game will tip off at 1 p.m. (EST) and be telecast by CBS.
Tennessee upset No. 1 Alabama 68-59 Wednesday night in Knoxville.
Series history
Kentucky leads the all-time series with Tennessee 159-77, but the Volunteers have won six of the past 10 meetings.
As UK head man, John Calipari is 17-12 vs. the Vols.
Tennessee Coach Rick Barnes is 11-10 against Kentucky overall, and 10-8 vs. the Wildcats as UT head man.
Most recent meeting
Antonio Reeves scored 18 points, Oscar Tshiebwe had 15 points and 13 rebounds and C.J Fredrick added 13 points as Kentucky upset then-No. 5 Tennessee 63-56 on Jan. 14, 2023, at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville.
Power rankings
The NCAA NET rankings have Tennessee No. 3, Kentucky No. 44.
In the Pomeroy ratings, Tennessee is No. 5, Kentucky No. 44.
The Sagarin ratings have Tennessee No. 6, Kentucky No. 39.
Know your foe
1. Since going to Tennessee for the 2015-16 season, Rick Barnes has beaten Kentucky more times in Rupp Arena (three) than any other opposing coach during the John Calipari coaching era (since 2009-10).
Barnes and UT defeated Calipari and UK in Rupp in 2020-21, an 82-71 Vols victory; in 2019-20, an 81-73 UT triumph; and in 2018-19, a 61-59 Tennessee win.
2. Going into Wednesday night’s clash with No. 1 Alabama, Tennessee had lost two straight and three our of its past four games. The Volunteers fell by one point on last-second buzzer beaters in back-to-back games last week.
Vanderbilt’s Tyrin Lawrence buried a three-point shot from the deep right corner as time expired to give the Commodores a 66-65 win over Tennessee in Nashville last Wednesday night. Missouri’s DeAndre Gholston heaved in a three-pointer from just inside the mid-court stripe to beat the Volunteers 86-85 last Saturday night in Knoxville.
UT started its stretch of three defeats in four games with a 67-54 loss to Florida in Gainesville on Feb. 1.
3. According to the Pomeroy Rankings, Tennessee is No. 1 in all of men’s college basketball in adjusted defensive efficiency. UT is surrendering only 56.6 points a game and holding opponents to 35.5 percent field-goal shooting and 24.2 percent accuracy from behind the three-point arc.
The Volunteers limited Alabama to 17-of-48 shooting, 35.4 percent, in UT’s upset of the top-ranked Crimson Tide Wednesday night.
This story was originally published February 15, 2023 at 11:02 PM.
