KNOXVILLE -- If there's a blueprint to knocking off Big Blue, no team this basketball season has been able to execute it.
The Tennessee Volunteers get the next shot at doing so.
Tennessee against the top
Tonight's meeting with top-ranked Kentucky will be Tennessee's 17th all time against the No. 1 team in the Associated Press college basketball poll since its introduction midway through the 1948-49 season. The Vols enter the game with a 4-12 record against No. 1 teams. Here's a look at Tennessee's wins against No. 1 teams. March 5, 1966: Won 69-62 vs. Kentucky Tennessee's first nine games against the No. 1 team all came against Kentucky, and the Vols lost the first eight of those before finally knocking off legendary coach Adolph Rupp and the Wildcats, who famously lost to Texas Western in the national championship game. Ron Widby scored 22 points and Austin Robbins had 18 points and 13 rebounds to lead Tennessee, then coached by Ray Mears, past Kentucky and its star, Pat Riley. The Vols finished 19-8 that season. Dec. 6, 1969: Won 55-54 at South Carolina This was back when South Carolina was not in the SEC and the season didn't begin until December. In the season opener, Jim English hit two free throws with 27 seconds left to give the Vols a three-point lead, and after scoring and forcing a five-second violation, the Gamecocks had a chance to win only to see John Roche miss a 25-footer. The win helped unranked Tennessee jump into the poll at No. 9, but the Vols went on to finish fifth in the SEC. Feb. 23, 2008: Won 66-62 at Memphis The Vols became No. 1 for the first and only time in program history by memorably knocking off 26-0 and top-ranked Memphis and freshman Derrick Rose, who led the Tigers with 23 points in the game. Tyler Smith scored the go-ahead bucket in the lane, and Memphis native J.P. Prince scored 13 points off the bench and hit two free throws with eight seconds left that essentially sealed it. Current Kentucky coach John Calipari was the Memphis coach. Jan. 10, 2010: Won 76-68 vs. Kansas Nine days after dismissing Tyler Smith and with three more players suspended for an infamous New Year's Day traffic stop, the 16th-ranked Vols stunned a Kansas team featuring five future NBA players. Walk-on Skylar McBee hit an off-balance 3-pointer at the shot-clock buzzer with less than 40 seconds left that doubled Tennessee's lead to 74-68. Scotty Hopson (17 points), Bobby Maze (16) and Renaldo Woolridge (14) led the Vols in scoring.
With a visit from No. 1 and unbeaten Kentucky looming tonight, Vols coach Donnie Tyndall spent the last couple of days watching all 12 of the tall, talented Wildcats' Southeastern Conference games in hopes of finding the formula some league teams followed to push what he called "arguably the best (college) team to ever be assembled" to the final minutes.
Of course, devising the formula and making it work are entirely different achievements.
"I've watched every conference game they've played in the last two days," Tennessee's first-year coach said Monday. "I think the biggest thing is the teams that have played them tough have first and foremost made perimeter jump shots, at least kept the rebounding numbers close -- and in some cases even -- and the third thing is you have to limit your turnovers.
"If you give up second shots, which means you're going to lose the rebounding battle, or you don't shoot it well where they're able to play in transition, or you turn it over where they can play in transition, you have no chance."
Kentucky has won its SEC games by nearly 16 points per game, an average that got a big boost when the Wildcats thrashed South Carolina by 34 in Lexington on Saturday.
Five teams have kept their losses to Kentucky within 10 points, however. Ole Miss and Texas A&M pushed the Wildcats past regulation -- the Aggies got them into double overtime -- and LSU missed a would-be winning 3-point shot at the buzzer last Tuesday. Florida lost by seven points and Vanderbilt fell by eight in Lexington.
Of course, the Wildcats notched three of their six SEC road wins by 15-plus points.
"You have to make this team score in the halfcourt," Tyndall said. "That being said, are we going to press? Yes, we're going to press, but it may be a little bit containment-type press. You've got to shrink the floor the best you can and do the best job you can of putting yourself in rebounding position, which is easier said than done.
"You're better off getting a 35-second shot-clock violation, and they've got to take it out of bounds, than to take a bad shot or turn it over and now they're playing in the open floor."
Ole Miss, LSU and Florida all shot better than 47 percent against Kentucky.
The Rebels hit nine 3-pointers and got 48 combined points from guards Stefan Moody and Jarvis Summers. LSU committed just nine turnovers and got 37 points and 18 rebounds from its frontcourt duo of Jordan Mickey and Jarell Martin. The Gators kept their turnovers down to 11.
Texas A&M limited Kentucky to just 28 percent shooting, outrebounded Kentucky by one and had only 12 turnovers, and Vanderbilt made seven 3s and was just minus-3 on the glass.
The Wildcats combined to shoot less than 26 percent on 3-pointers against the Aggies, Tigers and Gators.
Due to the wintry weather that hit Knoxville on Monday, the Wildcats traveled to Knoxville on Sunday night instead of the day before the game, and Kentucky coach John Calipari was a little concerned about how ready his team will be after the change in routine.
"I'm a creature of habit," he said on Monday's SEC coaches' conference call. "For however many years I've been a head coach, we've done it the same way. The offense is different, the defense is different, the players are different, but what we do as a family, how we travel, how our meals are are very consistent.
"This was a change. We had no choice. My concern is how do we do this and not get off point."
Tennessee comes into possibly the biggest game of its season with just two wins in its last seven games.
"I'm not going to sit here and make excuses for our team," Tyndall said. "I don't think wearing down is an excuse or a reason. I think what happens over a long period of time or through the schedule is teams become even more aware of your weaknesses and your deficiencies, and certainly we've done the same thing in trying to prepare for the opponent.
"We see more weaknesses or deficiencies and try to expose those, but I think that our team is being exposed in some areas that maybe early on we did a good job of hiding, or at least camouflaging a little bit. Now we're being exposed.
"The bottom line is we've got to do a better job as a coaching staff of finding ways to put these guys in position to be successful, and we're working day and night to do that."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.