KSR Gameday: Kentucky hosts Tennessee in primetime, Top 10 showdown

ZGeogheganKSR

ksr-gameday-kentucky-hosts-tennessee-primetime-top-10-showdown — Photo by Dr. Michael Huang | Kentucky Sports Radio

Good morning, folks! It’s Gameday here in Lexington once again. Your No. 10 Kentucky Wildcats will play host to the No. 5 Tennessee Volunteers late this evening in what will cap off a wild day of ranked matchups across the college basketball landscape.

Kentucky is coming off a tough, tough loss to Florida earlier this week. The Wildcats had the game won in the closing seconds of regulation but allowed the Gators to send the game into overtime. Florida had all of the momentum from there and stunned a packed Rupp Arena crowd once the final buzzer went off.

How will Kentucky respond with a better opponent taking the floor tonight? We’ve actually seen a movie similar to this one before. Kentucky lost two SEC games in a row last season before going into Knoxville and smacking Tennessee (also ranked No. 5 at the time) on the road. That win kickstarted a six-game conference winning streak. Will history repeat itself?

We sure hope so. While we wait for tipoff, get yourself excited this morning with a Kentucky-Tennessee hype video. After that, we’ll dive into the rest of today’s need-to-know info.

Can't wait for Saturday night in @Rupp_Arena. #GoBigBlue pic.twitter.com/D9iMgH7n03
— Kentucky Men’s Basketball (@KentuckyMBB) February 2, 2024

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How To Watch

No. 10 Kentucky (15-5) vs. Tennessee (15-5)
8:30 p.m. ET | Saturday, Feb. 3 | Rupp Arena

TV: ESPN (Tom Hart, Jimmy Dykes)
Streaming: WatchESPN
Home Radio: UK Sports Network – 630 WLAP, iHeart Radio (Tom Leach, Goose Givens)
Online Radio: iHeart
Satellite Radio: Sirius 83 and on the SiriusXM App
Live Stats: StatBroadcast

Statistical Comparison

(via Kentucky’s game notes)

Kentucky vs. Tennessee Odds via FanDuel

The opening line has not moved since it went live yesterday afternoon. Tennessee remains a slight 1.5-point favorite with Kentucky as the home dog. The total has been set at 159.5.

Checking out what the computers have to say, both KenPom and BartTorvik project similar outcomes. KenPom is predicting Kentucky to lose 80-78 with a 43 percent chance at the win while BartTorvik calls for Kentucky to lose 80-79 with a 48 percent chance to pull off the victory. Meanwhile, ESPN’s analytics give UK a 42.2 percent chance to win.

Spread: Tennessee -1.5
Total: 159.5

Three injury “updates”

Will tonight be the night that Kentucky has a full, healthy roster for the first time all season? It’s certainly possible, but there is a trio of Wildcats dealing with injuries that could keep that from finally happening.

For starters, freshman Justin Edwards — who clarified he’s dealing with a quad issue — told reporters yesterday afternoon that the expectation was for him to practice later that day and hopefully suit up against Tennessee tonight. If he ultimately did practice yesterday, expect him to give it a go tonight. At this moment, we’ll consider him a game-time decision.

Next on the injury list is sophomore Adou Thiero, who has played the last two games for UK after sitting out seven straight with a back issue. That being said, Thiero was seen laboring in pain during the Wildcats’ most recent outing against Florida, but he did speak with reporters on Friday alongside Edwards. He went in-depth on his back injury and how he’s recovering. The expectation is he’ll be available to play, but again, his status likely won’t be publicly known until shortly before tipoff.

Then there’s freshman DJ Wagner, who — like Edwards — was ruled out against Florida right before the game was set to start. The point guard is dealing with a nagging ankle issue. His playing status is the most questionable of them all leading into tonight’s showdown. Kentucky sure could use him against the Vols.

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How do you defend Dalton Knecht?

This is the question that likely kept John Calipari up last night. Tennessee senior Dalton Knecht is a scoring machine and currently sits near the top of the SEC Player of the Year race. The 6-foot-6 guard can pour in points from anywhere on the floor and does so with efficiency. He’s averaging 20.1 points and 4.6 rebounds in 29.3 minutes per game this season on shooting splits of 48.8/40/78.1.

But he’s been even more dangerous against SEC competition. Through seven conference games, Knecht is lighting up the opponent for 28.4 points and 5.4 rebounds in 32.1 minutes per game. His shooting splits are equally as impressive: 53/44.7/74.5. Outside of his eight-point showing in the SEC opener against Ole Miss, the Northern Colorado transfer has scored at least 25 points in his last six games, including four games of at least 30 points.

“He’s a great player,” Thiero said of Knecht on Friday. “He’s got a nose for scoring. He’ll find a way to get to the hoop and finish or get a shot off. So, we got to find a way to stop that, or limit it.”

If Kentucky can slow down Knecht — a tall task to ask — then the possibility of a win increases greatly.

Liam Coen appears headed to Tampa Bay

It felt like it was only a matter of time before this became the reality. Kentucky football offensive coordinator Liam Coen had been flirting with other job openings for weeks now. Friday morning, reports surfaced of Coen leaving Lexington (again) for the NFL (again) to take over as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers play caller.

While nothing has been made “official” just yet, it might as well be a done deal. Bucs’ quarterback Baker Mayfield made it sound all but certain. The awkwardness of UK possibly keeping Coen after all of this would be too much to overcome anyway. The timing isn’t ideal (Kentucky is hosting a busy Junior Day for prospective recruits today), but Mark Stoops and company will have a full spring to bring in a new OC and convince the current roster to stick around for the fall.

KSR’s Adam Luckett has a Hot Board of candidates to replace Coen you can read here.

HUGE day of CBB on tap

With a late, late tipoff time for UK-UT, you’ll have plenty of college basketball to watch throughout the afternoon and into the evening. There are a total of four top-25 matchups on the schedule today.