Kentucky vs. Tennessee is now the preeminent rivalry in SEC basketball

On Saturday afternoon at the SEC Tournament, Kentucky and Tennessee will face each other in basketball for the 235th time. Thanks to that heavy volume, no one has beaten the Wildcats more than the Volunteers. Yet, this rivalry was often not the premium one in the conference.

In the 1990s, Arkansas became Kentucky’s top competition when Nolan Richardson’s program transitioned from the Southwest Conference into the SEC. For five years from 1992-96, the Hogs and Wildcats battled for conference supremacy with each winning national titles.

Shortly after that, Billy Donovan got Florida hoops rolling. In 2000, the Gators made the Final Four and lost to Michigan State in the championship. From that point forward, Kentucky and Florida often traded punches swapping league titles and often being involved in ranked matchups.

However, Donovan left the league following the 2015 season, and most wondered who would be the next top dog to square up with Kentucky in the SEC. Rick Barnes has turned Tennessee into that top competition.

After needing two years to set the foundation on Rocky Top, Barnes has turned the Vols into a top-20 program, and Tennessee is consistently facing Kentucky in premium matchups. On Saturday afternoon, UT will look to beat Kentucky twice in one season for the third time in five years.

Ranked matchups

After a hot start to the season, Tennessee entered the top 25 for the first time under Barnes as SEC play began in 2018. On Jan. 6, the Vols hosted No. 17 Kentucky and beat the Wildcats for a third straight time at Thompson-Boling Arena. That would give us the first of many ranked matchups.

On Saturday, the Vols and Wildcats will have their eighth matchup as ranked teams since that 2016 season, and it will be the fourth when both teams were ranked inside the top-10. In those ranked games, the Vols own a 5-2 record with two wins over what was a top-five Kentucky team in 2019.

Quite often, these two programs are meeting in big-time games. The SEC spotlight has been on Kentucky and Tennessee more often than not.

Postseason showdowns

In the 2018 SEC Tournament, Kentucky got a great draw and found itself in the title game in St. Louis. Waiting on the Wildcats was No. 2 seed Tennessee who owned the regular-season sweep of Kentucky. Yet, the Big Blue won its fourth consecutive conference tournament title thanks to a 29-7-3-2 line from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the championship game.

One year later, the programs would meet again for the most anticipated SEC Tournament matchup in years. No. 4 Kentucky and No. 8 Tennessee squared off on Saturday at the SEC Tournament in Nashville with a packed house at Bridgestone Arena. The Vols closed the game on an 18-6 run in the final 2:50 to steal victory from the jaws of defeat.

In 2022, the programs will meet again at the SEC Tournament as top-10 programs. To become a top-notch rivalry, games need to have stakes. The Vols and Wildcats are constantly meeting in postseason environments to give us some heated battles.

Both haves have traded blows

After recording a couple of wins as an underdog early in his tenure, Barnes and Tennessee arrived in 2019. The Vols shared a league title with Auburn and nearly beat Kentucky three times. The Vols bounced back to beat a good Kentucky team twice in 2019 and pulled off a huge road upset in a down season the next year.

However, Kentucky has shown some fight by going into Knoxville and beating Tennessee in their 9-16 season. To begin this year, UK delivered a beatdown of epic proportions in a 107-79 victory only to see the Vols return the favor with a 13-point win a few weeks later.

These two heavyweight SEC programs are now trading punches, but Tennessee has landed more. Barnes is 9-7 against Kentucky and is gunning for his third multi-win season against the Wildcats. Kentucky needs to return the favor and deliver a knockout blow in Tampa.