Title: Revenge on Rocky Top.
Such is Tennessee basketball's storyline for Tuesday night at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville. Kentucky is coming to town. That's a big deal in Big Orange Country every year. This year, it's the same Kentucky that crushed the Volunteers 107-79 at Rupp Arena back on Jan. 15, the same day as Joe B. Hall's passing.
Thirty days will have passed since that beating.
You know the Vols have been waiting.
This will be Kentucky's toughest game of the year.
Yes, John Calipari's club has risen to No. 5 in the AP Top 25 rankings and second in the conference standings. Yes, the Wildcats have established themselves as not just a Final Four contender but a conceivable net-cutter in New Orleans on April 4.
Tuesday at 9 p.m. on ESPN, however, the Cats will walk into the house of not just a traditional rival, but a highly motivated one playing its best basketball of the season. Now 18-6 overall and 9-3 in the league, Tennessee has won seven straight SEC games. Its lone loss since Jan. 15 came 52-51 at Texas in Rick Barnes' first trip back to Austin since being the coach of the Longhorns.
Better still, Tennessee has figured out how to put the ball in the basket. From Dec. 29 through Jan. 22, the Vols failed to reach 70 points in six of seven games. Since then, they're averaging 74.4 per game. They beat Florida 78-71. They won 81-57 at South Carolina. Saturday night, they beat visiting Vanderbilt 73-64 for a season sweep of the Commodores.
Zakai Zeigler has much to do with UT's uptick. A 5-foot-9 freshman from Long Island, Zeigler has developed into the Vols' spark plug, a source of instant offense off the bench. He has scored in double figures in each of the last eight games. Zeigler scored 18 points at South Carolina. He scored 16 on Saturday in the win over the 'Dores.
Barnes' teams have always excelled defensively. Zeigler's emergence, along with a resurgent Josiah-Jordan James, the quick freshman guard Kennedy Chandler and the steadiness of junior Santiago Vescovi — Vescovi was plus-21 in 26 minutes against Vanderbilt — makes Tennessee a problem.
Kentucky has proven itself a problem-solver. The Cats are 21-4 overall, 10-2 in the league. They handled Florida 78-57 on Saturday despite the absence of Jacob Toppin (ankle) and an injury to guard TyTy Washington (ankle). That Saturday's game sponsor was UK Health Care might not have been a coincidence.
Washington's status is uncertain. John Calipari said X-rays did not show a major injury. Nevertheless, the coach cautioned that Washington could be "out for a week or two." We shall see.
And after losing four straight games in Knoxville, Calipari's club has won its last two — 77-64 on Feb. 8, 2020, and 70-55 on Feb. 20, 2021. Before last month's meeting with the Vols, whenever anyone brought up UT's run of success at Rupp, Calipari was quick to ask, "What's our record down there? Does anyone know?"
Tennessee knows that Jan. 15 score. The Vols shot 53.4 percent that afternoon and lost by 28 points. Reason: Kentucky shot a sizzling 67.9 percent, the best shooting percentage of the Calipari era, the best shooting percentage by a UK team since 68.8 percent in a 2008-09 win over Frank Martin and Kansas State in Las Vegas. Against the Vols, UK was 11 of 18 from three-point range.
"It was almost like they had a magnet in the rim," Barnes said.
To be sure, Kentucky faced a tall task when it traveled to then No. 2 Auburn on Jan. 22. The task was made even tougher when Washington was lost to an ankle injury in the first half and Sahvir Wheeler missed a stretch of the second. Having prevailed 80-71, Auburn was voted No. 1 for the first time in its history the following Monday.
It says here, however, that Tennessee has even more motivation now than Auburn had back then. It says here Tuesday will be Kentucky's toughest game of the season. If the Wildcats are successful, it'll be their best win of the season.
