Tennessee coach says Kentucky is difficult to prepare for, but 'not anything that we’re nervous about.'

Tennessee ranks as the most effective and efficient defense in the country, per KenPom. There isn’t an offense this season the Volunteers haven’t been able to handle. For a few examples, Rick Barnes‘ team held Florida to 12 points under its season average, Auburn to 31 points under its average, and Illinois to 21 points under its average. All three of those opponents currently rank among the nation’s Top 20 scoring offenses.

On the flip side, Tennessee only won one of those three games. As good as the Volunteers defense is, the offense leaves plenty to be desired. UT has just the 10th-best offense in the SEC through the start of conference play. But this group has reached a 17-3 record largely due to its stellar defensive skills.

Those skills will be tested again tonight against Kentucky. In spite of the recent losing skid, head coach Mark Pope has the Wildcats rolling on offense. The Wildcats rank fourth nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency per KenPom on the season and rank second in the SEC behind only Auburn during conference action. When Kentucky shoots better than 40 percent from the field, they boast a 13-1 record (1-4 when under that mark).

Tennessee knows exactly how dangerous Kentucky’s offense is. They’ve faced high-powered scoring teams before this season, which should help with scouting the Wildcats. Pope’s system is still going to be difficult to prepare for, but it’s nothing Tennessee hasn’t already experienced this season. UT will be expecting a spaced-out offense with plenty of shots from deep.

“I think they spread you out offensively,” Tennessee assistant coach Rod Clark said Monday during his pre-Kentucky press conference. “They play with a wide floor, have a lot of (dribble hand-offs) going on on the side, guys flying off of zoom actions, is what we like to call them. With teams that spread you out and shoot a lot of threes, you know, they’re playing five out a lot. It keeps you from being in gaps. It keeps you from being on what we call the white line, but on the midline. It keeps you from being able to help because you have to get overextended from guarding guys that like to shoot a lot of threes and they always keep at least four guys on the floor that shoot a ton of threes.

“So that makes it tough to prepare for ’em. It makes you have to have a little bit more urgency when it comes to your closeout game, and helping the helper with guys when they drive the basketball. But, you know, we’ve played teams like this in the past, honestly. It’s different. They’re different teams, but like we prepare for Alabama that does some of the similar things as them over the years. So it’s not anything that we’re nervous about, and don’t feel like we can guard ’em. We feel like we can still put our best foot forward and be good defensively. It’s just a matter of understanding tendencies and understanding some of the actions that we’d really like to get to.”

Kentucky will be without Lamont Butler against Tennessee and could miss Andrew Carr as well. Going into this matchup down a pair of starters isn’t ideal for the offense, especially when both average over 10 points per game. Kentucky will start this game at a personnel disadvantage. Tennessee’s defense will have a leg up.

Pope will still find his way to scheme players into good offense, it just might look a bit different than it has for most of the season. The Tennessee staff knows how smart of a game manager Pope is.

“They’re super talented,” Clark said of Kentucky. “Obviously they’re older this year, which is different from the last regime, obviously when (John Calipari) was there, because they got some good transfers in. But you know, they’re fun to watch. They’re innovative. They space the floor, shoot a lot of threes and get up and down, play a pretty good pace. So (Pope is) doing a great job, man.

“I think Coach Pope, I got a lot of respect for him. I remember watching his teams at Utah Valley and he did a good job there. And obviously he has climbed the ladder and now he’s at Kentucky, his former school, where he’s doing a really good job of getting those guys to play pretty hard for him. I don’t think any other coach that came into that situation would understand this rivalry more than Mark Pope does.” 

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