Five things you need to know from the No. 4 Kentucky Wildcats’ 76-63 loss to the No. 16 Tennessee Volunteers in an SEC men’s basketball game at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville:
1. Drought of Biblical proportions dooms UK. When Jacob Toppin scored a contested layup over Tennessee’s John Fulkerson with 13:57 left in the first half, it put Kentucky ahead 17-15.
UK would not hit another field goal until Davion Mintz drained a three-pointer with only 3:02 left before halftime.
By that time, Tennessee had surged ahead 39-27.
That 10-minutes-plus scoring drought put the Wildcats into a hole from which they never fully dug out.
The Volunteers led 46-32 at half and by as many as 17 early in the second half.
The Cats got it down to eight, 53-45, on a Lance Ware follow shot with 11:24 left in the game.
But another Kentucky scoring drought, this one in excess of 4:30, ended any hopes of an epic UK combeback.
2. Tennessee guards dominate. When Kentucky obliterated UT 107-79 on Jan. 15 in Lexington, UK’s backcourt controlled the game.
TyTy Washington scored 28 points, Sahvir Wheeler 21, Kellan Grady 16 and Davion Mintz 10. That foursome combined to hit 27-of-36 shots and score 75 points.
On Tuesday night, the UT backcourt delivered a robust reply.
Offensively, Santiago Vescovi (18 points), Kennedy Chandler (17), Zakai Zeigler (14) and Josiah Jordan-James (eight) combined for 57 points.
The UT guards may have been even more impressive defensively.
Tennessee physicality pushed the Kentucky offense higher out on the floor than it normally operates. The Cats looked discombobulated for much of the game.
Same Kentucky guards who combined for 75 points in Lexington were held to 29 in Knoxville.
Meanwhile, Tennessee had a whopping nine steals, four by Zeigler and two by Chandler.
All those steals contributed to 14 UK turnovers, nine in the second half.
To gauge how stout the Tennessee defensive effort was overall, consider:
In UK’s blowout victory over the Vols in Rupp Arena, Kentucky hit 38-of-56 field goals, 11-of-18 treys and 20-of-21 free throws.
On Tuesday night, UK made 23-of-67, 5-of-16 and 12-of-14.
3. TyTy and Toppin give it a go. UK starting guard TyTy Washington and key frontcourt reserve Jacob Toppin, each of whom had ankle injuries, both played in Knoxville.
Washington was in the Kentucky starting lineup, but was able to play only 12 minutes. He left the game early in the second half in apparent pain and never returned.
The freshman finished with four points, three assists and three turnovers.
Menawhile, Toppin played well. On a night when Kentucky struggled to score, the 6-9, 200-pound junior hit 5-of-9 shots and had 11 points and six rebounds in 20 minutes of playing time.
4. UK fails to sweep UT again. Tennessee’s victory denied Kentucky its first regular-season, two-game sweep over UT since the 2011-12 season (the teams only faced each other once in 2013-14 and 2014-15).
Tennessee’s most recent regular-season sweep of Kentucky came in 2017-18, when the Volunteers beat the Wildcats 76-65 at Knoxville and 61-59 in Lexington.
That year, UK turned the tables on UT with a 77-72 victory in the 2018 SEC Tournament Finals.
Might the Cats and Vols meet again in the SEC Tournament in Tampa this year?
5. Barnes joins elite list of UK coaching opponents. With the Tennessee victory, Rick Barnes joins the the “double-digit wins against Kentucky” coaching club.
Barnes record vs. UK moved to 9-7 as UT head man. Overall, Barnes is now 10-9 against the Wildcats.
The coaches who have beaten Kentucky at least 10 times (in order of wins) now numbers 13. In order of wins, they are:
1. Dale Brown 18; 2. Billy Donovan 17; 3. Bob Knight, Ray Mears 15; 5. Roy Skinner 14; 6, Dean Smith 13; 7. Kevin Stallings 12; 8. Don DeVoe, Wimp Sanderson 11; 10. C.M. Newton, Roy Williams, Bruce Pearl, Rich Barnes 10.
