Kentucky expects another physical game against Tennessee. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky won 78-73 at Tennessee in late January but got a huge assist from the Vols when coach Rick Barnes watched his team go 11-for-45 from 3-point range.
The No. 5 Vols will take on UK in Rupp Arena tonight — remember Tennessee won 103-92 against No. 10 UK in Rupp Arena last season when all five starters scored in double figures. It was the first time a SEC team had scored over 100 points in Rupp Arena since 1992 — a feat Alabama also accomplished this year.
Kentucky won in Knoxville without injured point guard Lamont Butler and forward Andrew Carr, who only played 89 seconds. Tonight Butler is back and Carr is at full strength but guard Jaxson Robinson is out with a wrist injury.
Kentucky freshman Trent Noah said Monday the Cats were expecting a similar game to the one in Knoxville.
“(Tennessee is) a great offensive rebounding team, so that’s been a big emphasis this week,” Noah said.
Butler said a key for UK was limiting the Vols to one shot, a logical concern since Tennessee ranks 10th nationally in offensive rebounding. The Volunteers had 18 offensive rebounds against UK in the first game, including seven in the final three minutes, which led to 20 second-chance points.
That’s why Tennessee taking so many 3-pointers, especially after offensive rebounds, is not likely to happen again. Tennessee has shot 43 percent overall (25 of 58) from 3-point range in the last three games and taken 19 or more 3’s in each game — but not 45.
Kentucky also went 12-for-24 from 3 at Tennessee but the Vols have held the last three teams they have played to shoot only 27 percent from 3. Tennessee leads the nation in field goal percentage defense (36.2) and 3-point percentage (26.6).
Guard Zakai Zeigler, who had 26 points in Rupp Arena last year, is tied for seventh all-time in the SEC with 645 assists and is only one behind Kentucky’s Dirk Minniefield (646 from 1979-83) for sixth and 11 shy of Georgia/ Kentucky’s Sahvir Wheeler (656 from 2019-23) for fifth.
Tennessee is also one of only four teams in the country to have at least four players who have scored 1,300 or more points in college. Only 27 teams nationally have four players with 1,000 or more points.
Guard Jordan Gainey has 1,433 points in 124 games, Darlinstone Dubar has 1,431 in 135 games, Chaz Lanier has 1,363 in 128 outings and Zeigler has 1,348 in 124 games.
5 Responses
Sometimes I think we would be better playing Williams and Garrison together and then go small ball with Carr and Almonor. With W & G, we should shut down offensive rebounds from the opponent and increase our chance of second chance points. With C & A, the opponents bigs would not want to chase them through screens and out on the arc which should give us more open shots from three.
I agree it would help our rebounding out alot and would keep Tennessee off the offensive glass. I doubt we see Garrison and Williams together because that’s basically all we have as a backup is each other. So idk but I do think it would solve some rebounding issues. I’m nervous about this game. For some reason I just don’t see us sweeping Rick Barnes he’s one of the best coaches in college basketball. There is no way they shoot that many 3s again. They shot an insane amount and missed almost all of them. I doubt that happens again I see a close game but unless Brea or possibly even Noah gets hot or maybe even Almonor hot we might be cooked. We need someone who don’t usually score much to score much. Maybe Almonor is the guy that offsets Robinson not playing idk. Butler and Brea need to have big games and Oweh needs to play how he did vs south Carolina in the last 10 minutes of the game. When he drives to the paint everyone on the defense collapses and when he kicks it out its almost a guaranteed wide open 3 I would like to see more of that out of Oweh. Keep going to the rack if its available but if it’s going to be a very difficult shot kick it out and his he would play a player of the year candidate. Butler and Oweh have incredible defense the rest of the starters don’t. Williams has to use two hands if he did he would be way better than he is now.
Wow this aged perfectly.
Agree with all the points made above but defense of Rupp not where it should be and hasn’t been for last few years. This team still doesn’t show consistent toughness or resolve to win. If we play Pope ball and show the kind of D we did against SC, then we do have a chance. It is difficult to comprehend all of these injuries this year and still a little mysterious. As bad as Arkansas is this year we still only have 2 more W’s and locked in lower half of SEC, and that should not be acceptable.
I’m so glad we could win the game without winning on the boards. When you shoot 50% overall, you can beat almost any team! How about our Kentucky boys?! They are so confident with their shooting! Mountain Mamba even plays aggressive defense!