The Official #5 Tennessee @ #10 Kentucky Game Thread, 8:30 PM ET, ESPN

#51
#51
It's potentially the best day of basketball season. When we get to move the "Kentucky Lost" thread to the top of the page, via a heartbreaker for those hyenas in Corrupt.
 
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#54
#54
BigOrangeFanatic said:
Not necessarily. We need his defense and rebounding though. We just can't have another dud from ZZ, Aidoo and Gainey like against USCe. Santi has to contribute too. Gainey is the one that could take us from being solid offensively to being very hard to stop. When he's able to shoot from the outside and drive the ball like we've seen at times, we become so much more versatile and it allows to not drop off that much when DK is on the bench.
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Agree. If Aidoo can be established early and ZZ, Santi, and Gainey just shoot their averages from 3, what I'd love to see from JJJ aside from defense and boards is occasionally getting downhill for that jumper in the paint or going to the rim - if we get 8-10 from him I think we win.
 
#55
#55
TheMookieMonster said:
I would be shocked if all 3 of those players are out. I think it’s likely that all 3 play. Cal even said Wagner sat against Florida to make sure he was healthy for Tennessee.
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According to Kentucky’s board and Kyle Tucker, Wagner will not play. That’s a big miss for them if he doesn’t go. It puts a lot of weight on Reeves and Dillingham. Sheppard is the guy you have to watch out for in transition on spot of 3’s but the majority of the weight will be on Reeves and Dillingham. I’m interested to see if Cal tries to expose our weakness and use his three seven footers to take over the paint today. They aren’t guys that they usually run the offense through but without Wagner and maybe another guy, I think they may resort to working the ball inside out and see if our stingy defense over helps opening up the perimeter.
 
#56
#56
BallerVolFan said:
According to Kentucky’s board and Kyle Tucker, Wagner will not play. That’s a big miss for them if he doesn’t go. It puts a lot of weight on Reeves and Dillingham. Sheppard is the guy you have to watch out for in transition on spot of 3’s but the majority of the weight will be on Reeves and Dillingham. I’m interested to see if Cal tries to expose our weakness and use his three seven footers to take over the paint today. They aren’t guys that they usually run the offense through but without Wagner and maybe another guy, I think they may resort to working the ball inside out and see if our stingy defense over helps opening up the perimeter.
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If Cal is smart, he’ll try and play bully ball in the paint with his three bigs and get Aidoo in foul trouble.
 
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#58
#58
In Calipari's 14 year stint at Ky, the Cats have only lost back to back home games once, and that was to TN & Ark in '21. I don't expect tonight's outcome to be the 2nd time. I can see 3, maybe 4 more losses for the Vols before the SECT including this game. I think KY wins by at least 10--they just have too many more consistent weapons especially when it comes to knocking down the 3s. Hope I'm wrong but I'm picking the Cats 83-71. After Wed.'s OT loss, Ky's players and fans are going to be desperate for not just a win, but a massacre, and for them, there could not be a more appropriate opponent than the one SEC team that has been ranked ahead of them all season long!
 
#60
#60
Kentucky will be up for this game and the refs in their pockets. We will get run out of the building tonight
 
#61
#61
TheMookieMonster said:
If Cal is smart, he’ll try and play bully ball in the paint with his three bigs and get Aidoo in foul trouble.
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Now that I say that, the line jumped 3 points in Kentucky’s favor. A jump that big doesn’t usually happen unless a player is going to play. Most of the money was coming in on Kentucky but more has started coming in on Tennessee today and the line still flipped to UK -1.5
 
#62
#62
Losing Wagner hurts them but more interested to see how effective Thiero is with his injury he’s nursing. Guessing he will be in charge of trying to shut down Knecht. Big strong athlete and their best defender.
 
#63
#63
BallerVolFan said:
Now that I say that, the line jumped 3 points in Kentucky’s favor. A jump that big doesn’t usually happen unless a player is going to play. Most of the money was coming in on Kentucky but more has started coming in on Tennessee today and the line still flipped to UK -1.5
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Gotta be Edwards?
 
#64
#64
TheMookieMonster said:
I just really hate we lost that South Carolina game. It makes this game a lot more important than it needed to be. If we had won Tuesday, this game would have basically meant nothing other than for bragging rights.
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On the other hand, winning big games under pressure is the only preparation for the NCAA Tournament.

BTW... I would encourage CBS to keep the name of the tournament un-sullied by removing "NCAA" from it.
 
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#67
#67
Col_Cathcart said:
Gotta be Edwards?
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I don’t see how Edwards would cause a line to jump that much. He hasn’t provided any offensive production for them especially in SEC play. He averages 4 points. But he is one of their better defensive guys. Everything I’m seeing points to Wagner not playing. Normally when money comes in on one team and the line continues to move the opposite direction, there’s a reason.
 
#68
#68
Thunder Good-Oil said:
Jerry Green was a train wreck at UT, but he did pull off the win at Rupp in 1999 after 19 straight losses there. For doing that he deserved a Kmart gift card.

Barnes is the ONLY UT coach with multiple wins at Rupp Arena.
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I remember that game. IIRC, it was a low scoring rock fight, we won something like 52-50, 49-47?
 
#69
#69
BallerVolFan said:
I don’t see how Edwards would cause a line to jump that much. He hasn’t provided any offensive production for them especially in SEC play. He averages 4 points. But he is one of their better defensive guys. Everything I’m seeing points to Wagner not playing. Normally when money comes in on one team and the line continues to move the opposite direction, there’s a reason.
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Yeah. But it would be a shock if Wagner played if the reports about him being unable to practice yesterday are true. Maybe Cal is playing games with injury reports 🤷‍♂️

You’re right though. Someone seems to know something and whatever it is, it’s bad news. Maybe they got an early look at the officiating crew?
 
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#70
#70
We need to bring our best game tonight if there is any damn chance to win at Rupp. Go Vols! Whip some Catass
 
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#73
#73
If we play defense like we are capable of playing, Knecht does Knecht things, and ZZ/Vescovi/Aidoo provide sufficient offence to keep the Cats defense honest, we will win rather easily. The problem is we haven't been doing all three of those consistently.

They don't play defense on the perimeter. We have to knock down our open looks behind the arc.
 
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#74
#74
PKT_VOL said:
If we play defense like we are capable of playing, Knecht does Knecht things, and ZZ/Vescovi/Aidoo provide sufficient offence to keep the Cats defense honest, we will win rather easily. The problem is we haven't been doing all three of those consistently.

They don't play defense on the perimeter. We have to knock down our open looks behind the arc.
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Kentucky coming off of a home loss and playing us on their home floor right after is never good news. But it doesn’t really mean a thing. That’s all mental gymnastics and motivation. It can go both ways. IMO, the objective is to slow Kentucky down in transition and force them to operate in the front court. If we force them to grind out possessions and force them to score late in the shot clock, we should be fine. Their defense won’t improve overnight. The one thing that will help their defense is turnovers, that’s the only defense they have. Limit turnovers, limit them from the 3-point line and I think we win.
 
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