What Kentucky expects from the Vanderbilt rematch? "They're very aggressive."

Kentucky experienced its second court-storming of the season in Nashville as Vanderbilt pulled off the 74-69 upset over the No. 9 Wildcats. UK outshot and outrebounded VU, finishing 48.1 percent from the field and 39.1 percent from three compared to 43.9 percent overall and 36.4 percent from deep while pulling off the 43-30 advantage on the glass.

How does that lead to a five-point loss? The Cats turned it over 17 times with the Commodores forcing 10 steals, leading to 14 points off turnovers.

If you’re looking for the No. 1 key to the game for Kentucky in the rematch on Wednesday, look no further than those turnover numbers.

“Obviously, protecting the ball is something that’s on our board every day that we want to do at a high level. We want to protect the ball and have as little turnovers as possible,” Travis Perry said of the matchup on Tuesday.

“They really tried to be super aggressive with us defensively, they forced a lot of turnovers,” Andrew Carr added. “They like to get out in transition. We know we’ve got to protect the ball a lot better this game than we did last time, really use their aggressiveness against them — offensively and defensively.”

Vanderbilt enters the matchup ranked No. 10 nationally in turnover margin, No. 19 in steal rate, No. 29 in defensive turnover rate and No. 32 in turnovers forced per game. The Wildcats know how much havoc the Commodores are capable of creating, Lamont Butler (6), Otega Oweh (4) and Brandon Garrison (4) combining for 14 turnovers of the team’s 17.

What makes them so talented in that area? They get you off your game.

“I think just being more aggressive will kind of tone that out for us. Just being aggressive to make plays for teammates is something we really focus on. I think that is a great way we can cut down on turnovers,” Perry said. “… Just coming in and playing our game plan, I feel like we had a couple stints that game where maybe we got out of what we wanted to do, and that leads to turnovers if you’re doing something you’re not comfortable doing. Just trying to stay in our game plan and stick to that.”

“Vandy plays a very aggressive defense. They’ll do a lot of things, throw some punches at us,” Carr added. “So I think if we’re aggressive on the offensive side. We’re not really on our heels and we’re attacking them. I think it’ll be more difficult for them to guard us in that way, and that’ll give us the advantage there.”

They’re not a turnover-or-bust group, either. There are plenty of pieces capable of beating you in different ways. It’s a top-50 scoring offense in the country with Jason Edwards among the top scorers in the SEC — the Wildcats know plenty about him after he went for 18 in the first matchup.

“They’re a super talented team and have some really deadly shooters,” Carr said. “We’ve got to make sure that we stay with them and try and rebound the ball. That’s when we’re at our best, when we’re trying to get stops, rebound and get out in transition.”

Where they lack in size, they make up for it in physicality, too.

“They’re very physical. One through five, they’re very aggressive,” Perry continued. “They’ve got a couple guys that are kind of doing different things with the way they’re doing the lineups.”

Kentucky trailed 41-27 at halftime before storming back on a 31-10 run to take a 58-51 lead in the second half. That led to Vanderbilt scoring the last six points of the game with the Wildcats held scoreless in the final three minutes.

More of what they did in that 31-10 run than what came before intermission and down the stretch. Execute the way they know they’re capable of and avoid the season sweep — that simple.

“Our execution just has to be the same, go out there and focus on us. That’s the main thing, just do what we want to do and keep playing our game. I think that’ll lead to a win for us,” Perry said.

“We fought back really well against them in the second half there and had them on the ropes, and they ended up coming back and beating us there at their place. That one really hurt for us,” Carr, who missed that one with a back injury. “We really felt that we learned a lot from that game. We’re super excited.

“For me, I wasn’t able to be a part of that game, so I’m super excited to be able to try and get out there and go get a win.”

Tip-off is scheduled for 7 PM ET on Wednesday, live from Rupp Arena on SEC Network. Gotta have this one.