Kentucky (21-4, 10-2) heads to Knoxville to take on Tennessee (18-6, 9-3) in what should be a marquee SEC matchup. The Wildcats blew out Tennessee at home a month ago to the tune of 107-78. You can imagine how angry the Vols might be with that and how much they’ll want to return the favor in front of their own home crowd.
Tennessee actually didn’t shoot the ball too poorly, but it was a game where Kentucky was shooting flames out of its hands. The big difference in the game being Tennessee’s 20 turnovers to Kentucky’s 12. Because both teams were hitting so many of their shots, there wasn’t a major gap in rebounding as Kentucky only won that battle with one extra board.
Kentucky vs. Tennessee Game Details and Betting Picks and Odds
Date: 2/15/22
Time: 8:00 PM CST
Arena: Thompson-Boling Arena, Knoxville, TN
Channel: ESPN
Point Spread:
Total:
Moneyline:
Kentucky vs. Tennessee Game Preview
Tennessee will look to exact revenge on one of the hottest teams in the country right now as Kentucky comes to town. It will be a tall task as the Wildcats have not only won their last six games, but they also embarrassed Kansas in Phog Allen Fieldhouse, which pretty much never happens. Meanwhile, Tennessee has won four out of its last five games, with the exception being a one-point loss to Texas.
The Volunteers will have to once again deal with one of the best rebounding teams in the country and find a way to contain Oscar Tshiebwe, the best individual rebounder in the entire country. He has almost 20 double-doubles this season and will likely see that happen again on Tuesday. It will fall to John Fulkerson, Uros Plavsic, and Brandon Huntley-Hatfield to try to limit Tshiebwe’s second chance opportunities in this one.
One advantage that Tennessee holds is that it is quite good at forcing turnovers. The Vols average almost 10 steals a game and force about 17 turnovers each game. They are solid defensively, allowing only 63 points a game and will hope to hold Kentucky close to that since the Wildcats average over 80 a game. This game should get chippy and make for an intense one we didn’t get in the first round of this matchup.
