Tennessee's offensive rebounding sits at the top of Kentucky's scouting report

For the first time all season, Kentucky will face a repeat opponent.

The Wildcats will host No. 5 Tennessee on Tuesday night in Rupp Arena. This comes two weeks after Mark Pope took his team into Knoxville (without a healthy Lamont Butler on the floor) and beat the Volunteers at its own game. It was Kentucky’s defense that allowed a short-handed roster to limit Tennessee’s scoring. The Volunteers shot 11-45 from deep and shot under 35 percent from the field in a 78-73 loss.

What will Kentucky’s game plan look like for the rematch in roughly 24 hours? According to freshman wing Trent Noah, it won’t be too dissimilar to what we saw back on Jan. 28. The biggest difference will be having Butler back in the lineup, along with a healthier Andrew Carr, who played just 89 seconds of the last meeting against Tennessee but is also back in the fold.

“It should be somewhat similar,” Noah said Monday. “(Tennessee is) a great offensive rebounding team, so that’s been a big emphasis this week.”

Scouting Tennessee is a bit easier this time around than it was ahead of the first matchup. The players and coaches have already been able to dive into the film this week from the showdown in Knoxville. That doesn’t mean pulling out a victory will be any easier, but the recipe has already been laid out. Having Butler back to deal with Zakai Zeigler helps, too.

That being said, Kentucky can’t rely on Tennessee to miss 34 three-pointers again. The Volunteers have shot 43.1 percent from deep on over 19 attempts per outing in the three games since losing to Kentucky — all wins over good competition. After allowing UK to shoot 12-24 from deep, Tennessee has held its last three opponents to just a 27.5 percent clip from deep.

Like Noah, Butler also mentioned the Volunteers’ offensive rebounding skills during Monday’s press conference. “Making sure they’re limited to one shot,” was one of Butler’s keys to the games. Tennessee ranks 10th in the country in offensive rebounding. Kentucky has been much better as of late at cleaning up the defensive glass, and that needs to continue in Tuesday’s rematch.

The final number in that stat column very well could be the difference in a win or a loss for the ‘Cats.

Despite the outside shooting troubles, Tennessee was able to stay alive against Kentucky in the first meeting nearly two weeks ago because of offensive rebounding. The Volunteers finished with 18 offensive rebounds in that game, six of them credited as “team” offensive rebounds. They flipped that into 20 second-chance points. Poor defensive rebounding nearly cost the ‘Cats the win down the stretch. Tennessee grabbed seven offensive rebounds in the final 3:15 of regulation against UK.

But Kentucky was able to survive, in large part due to a rough overall shooting night for Tennessee. That being said, giving up another 18 offensive rebounds on Tuesday would be playing with some serious fire.

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