Tennessee basketball returns to Knoxville on Tuesday night where they’ll host rival Kentucky in a top 15 showdown.
The Vols are looking to bounce back from a narrow loss at No. 1 Auburn while Kentucky is looking to end a two-game losing skid.
Here’s everything to know about the rivalry matchup.
More From RTI: What Tennessee AC Rod Clark Said Ahead Of Kentucky Game
How To Watch — No. 8 Tennessee (17-3, 4-3 SEC) vs. No. 12 Kentucky (14-5, 3-3 SEC)
- Start Time: 7 p.m. ET/6 p.m. CT
- Location: Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center
- Watch: ESPN. PxP: Karl Ravech, CC: Jimmy Dykes, Sideline: Molly McGrath
- Online Streaming: Watch ESPN
- Radio (Knoxville): The Vol Network/The Vol Network App
Betting Lines
- Tennessee -8.5 Kentucky
- Over/under 148.5
- Tennessee -9 Kentucky
- Over/under: 145
What Tennessee AC Rod Clark Said About The Wildcats
On what Kentucky looks like under first-year UK coach Mark Pope
“They’re super talented. Obviously they’re older this year, which is different from the last regime, obviously when Cal (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 he’s 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.”
On what Kentucky does so well
“I think they spread you out offensively. 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.”
