The first time Tennessee played Kentucky the Vols shot 53 percent from the field (31 of 58), hit 11 3-pointers, and pulled off 10 offensive rebounds — and still lost by 28 points. The teams play again Tuesday night in Knoxville where the Vols have won 13 straight games after beating Vanderbilt 73-64. Tennessee is also 9-3 in SEC play — just one game behind Kentucky and two games behind Auburn.
Tennessee had 11 players score against Vanderbilt, including four in double fitness led by Zakai Zeigler with 16 points.
Thompson-Boling Arena had over 20,000 fans for the game — the fourth crowd of over 20,000 — and figures to have even more Tuesday night for UK.
Tennessee coach Rick Barnes knows what the Vols face Tuesday night.
“I said it and I’ll say it again, Kentucky would’ve beaten anybody in the country (that day). I mean, they were just phenomenal. It was as good of a basketball (team effort) that we’ve ever coached against,” Barnes said.
“I mean, they were phenomenal. They came out and hit us early. We gave them the room to get out and run. Their basket looked like it had a magnet to it. You can’t take anything away from them, because they did anything and everything they wanted to do.”
Kentucky was 38 of 56 from the field against the Vols and went 11-for-18 from 3-point range. Guard TyTy Washington had 28 points and five assists while guard Sahvir Wheeler had 21 points and eight assists. Kellan Grady added 16 points. Oscar Tshiebwe had nine points, 12 rebounds, and three steals.
“I think they’ve improved since then, too. I think we’ve improved. There were a lot of mistakes that we made that game and we certainly can’t make them again or we’ll get the same results,” Barnes said.
Washington left Saturday’s win over Florida with an ankle injury. His status for Tuesday is not yet known but coach John Calipari indicated after the game he likely would be out for a week or more.
Zeigler, a freshman, says the Vols know what they are facing.
“It’s not a revenge game or anything, we just have to look at it as if we got to continue what we’re doing and do what’s working,” he said.
2 Responses
The most difficult game left on the schedule for UK with Tyty. Without him, this game’s difficulty zooms upward.
Lightning is not likely to strike twice against the same team, so let’s go in there and get out with a win, any win will do, to put the pressure on Auburn to do the same in 2 weeks.
This is a huge game for Tennessee too for SEC Tournament seeding. I don’t think a UT win tomorrow will win the SEC Championship because Auburn would have to lose twice which is not very likely, but a UT win tomorrow gives them the inside track for the SEC T #2 seed.
Huge game with post-season ramifications.
The importance of this game will not be lost on Tennessee. Will UK understand how huge this game is for them?
If we play inside out, we can hold our own. If our guards take it on themselves, i.e. Sahvir, try to win the game, then it’s a tossup. Will Jacob play tonight? Maybe Keion will too. Lance, Bryce and Damion will see extended minutes…their contributions could be the difference.
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