The oddsmakers think Tennessee takes care of business at home.
There’s no rest in the SEC, not this year. Tennessee’s tough stretch continues on Tuesday night as they welcome No. 12 Kentucky to Knoxville for the first of two matchups on the year.
The Volunteers are coming off of a grueling, physical game at No. 1 Auburn where they came up a bucket short. Tonight they’ll look to bounce back against a rival, while welcoming back Mark Pope to the series. Pope was a part of Kentucky’s National Championship team back in 1995-96. He’s now in the middle of year one as the program’s head coach.
Things have changed since then. Rick Barnes is 11-10 overall against the Wildcats since arriving in Knoxville, holding a 5-4 record in Knoxville in the series. Pope was obviously hired to turn that trend around, and Tennessee assistant coach Rod Clark already sees one key difference in Pope’s approach from John Calipari’s.
“They’re super talented,” Clark said of Kentucky. “Obviously they’re older this year, which is different from the last regime, obviously when Cal 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.”
That pace will run into KenPom’s No. 1 ranked defense on Tuesday night at Food City Center. Tennessee held Auburn — KenPom’s No. 1 ranked offense — to just 53 points on Saturday.
The oddsmakers favor that elite defense. Tennessee opened as an eight-point favorite over Kentucky and that line has been pushed up to nine in some places. The market is likely reacting to the news that Kentucky will be without starting guard Lamont Butler, who is out with a shoulder injury. Butler averages 13 points per game. Kentucky senior forward Andrew Carr is listed as questionable.
Tennessee will be at full strength on Tuesday night, outside of center JP Estrella who is out for the remainder of the season.
Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. ET on ESPN.