All four writers at ESPN believe Tennessee is going to get the win at Rupp Arena tomorrow night.
Check out their reasoning:
Tennessee at Kentucky (Saturday, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN) is your marquee game of the weekend. Who you taking?
Jeff Borzello, college basketball Insider: Give me Tennessee on the road. I think the Volunteers will pose too many issues for Kentucky with Grant Williams and Admiral Schofield, as PJ Washington can guard only one of them. I also think Tennessee offers a little bit more from the perimeter — which could be the difference in a game where both teams prefer to live in the paint.
Myron Medcalf, senior college basketball writer: I love this matchup. And I think we’re going to see a great game that won’t be decided until the final minutes. But I’m going to pick Tennessee because, like Jeff said, I think Rick Barnes has variation in his lineup that John Calipari’s squad can’t match. Look for Barnes to go with Williams at the 5, Schofield at the 4 and Jordan Bowden at the 3 early in this game to see how Kentucky’s bigs handle it.
John Gasaway, college basketball writer: I like Barnes’ guys to stay undefeated in the SEC. The collision between the Tennessee offense and the Wildcats’ D — both of which are absurdly good — promises to be epic. I suspect, however, that LSU just showed the blueprint for how to score points against UK at Rupp. Basically, the cheat code here is normal shooting (which against Kentucky is outstanding) plus zero turnovers and an offensive board on one in every three shots you miss. The Vols are eminently capable of checking all of those boxes.
Jordan Schultz, Insider/analyst: Kentucky has clearly turned the corner and become a legitimate Final Four threat. Tennessee, however, remains the better, more experienced team. Both teams possess tremendous frontcourt play — Kentucky leads the SEC in rebounding — but Williams is on another planet right now. He can score from anywhere and does real damage inside the arc, hence his 19.4 points per game and 61.4 percent shooting on 2s. This is a good test for both teams, but I like the Vols to send Calipari to a rare loss at Rupp, and his second this week.
