Live Updates: No. 8 Tennessee Basketball vs. No. 12 Kentucky
No. 8 Tennessee Basketball is back home Tuesday to start a run of three straight home games, beginning with the renewal of the annual home-and-home rivalry with No. 12 Kentucky. The Vols and Wildcats are scheduled for a 7 p.m. Eastern Time start on ESPN.
Follow along for live updates before, during and after tonight’s game on The General’s Quarters
Tennessee (17-3, 4-3 SEC) is coming off a 53-51 loss at No. 1 Auburn Saturday night at Neville Arena, after a 68-56 win over No. 14 Mississippi State last Tuesday.
Kentucky (14-5, 3-3) have lost back-to-back games, falling 74-69 at Vanderbilt on Saturday and 102-97 at home against No. 4 Alabama on January 18. The Wildcats did not have a midweek game last week.
Tennessee coach Rick Barnes is 11-10 against Kentucky as the head coach of the Vols. Under Barnes, Tennessee is 7-1 against Kentucky teams ranked inside the Associated Press Top 10, 7-3 when both teams are ranked in the AP Top 25 and 4-1 when both teams are ranked in the top 10.
No. 8 Tennessee vs. No. 12 Kentucky
Start Time: Tuesday, 7 p.m. Eastern Time
TV: ESPN
Streaming: ESPN App or WatchESPN.com
Radio: WNML-FM 99.1 in Knoxville. The Vol Network radio broadcast can be heard on local affiliates across the state of Tennessee.
KenPom Prediction: Tennessee 77, Kentucky 68 (79% chance to win)
The Line: Tennessee -8.5
A Closer Look: The Kentucky Wildcats
Kentucky hired Mark Pope in April to replace John Calipari, after Calipari left for Arkansas. Pope was a team captain on Kentucky’s 1995-96 national championship team and won two SEC championships with the Wildcats after transferring from Washington.
He went 110-52 as the head coach at BYU over the previous four seasons, making it to the NCAA Tournament once, a loss in the first round in 2021. He was 77-56 in four seasons at Utah Valley, going to the CBI three times, advancing to the semifinals once and the quarterfinals twice.
Pope remade the Kentucky roster in the NCAA Transfer Portal, adding small forward Jaxson Robinson (BYU), shooting guard Otega Oweh (Oklahoma), Lamont Butler (San Diego State), point guard Kerr Kriisa (West Virginia), power forward Amari Williams (Drexel), shooting guard Kobe Brea (Dayton), small forward Andrew Carr (Wake Forest) and power forward Ansley Almonor (Fairleigh Dickinson).
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Oweh leads Kentucky in scoring (15.9 points per game), Williams leads in rebounding (8.6) and blocks (1.6) and Butler leads in assists (4.8) and steals (1.8). Brea, averaging 10.8 points per game, shoots 46.4% from the 3-point line, the second-highest percentage in college basketball.
Kriisa has been out indefinitely since early December after undergoing foot surgery. Butler (13.2 points per game) is out against Tennessee due to a shoulder injury and Carr (10.9 points per game) is questionable with a back injury after missing the Vanderbilt game.
Where Kentucky is ranked
Kentucky dropped three spots to No. 12 in both the Associated Press Top 25 and Coaches Poll on Monday after the loss at Vanderbilt on Saturday.
KenPom.com has Kentucky ranked No. 22 overall. The Wildcats are No. 5 in adjusted offensive efficiency, scoring 124.3 points per 100 possessions, and No. 82 in adjusted defensive efficiency, giving up 101.3 points per 100 possessions.
UK is No. 14 in the NET with a 6-5 record in Quad 1 games. ESPN’s Joe Lunardi on Friday had Kentucky as the No. 10 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, projected in his Bracketology update as a No. 3 seed.
