Remember the pandemic-altered college basketball season of 2020-21, when Kentucky failed to win 10 games for the first time in nearly 100 years?
Those 9-16 Wildcats came to Tennessee, built a 20-point lead on multiple occasions and cruised past the Volunteers 70-55.
“They came in here and just owned us,” Vols coach Rick Barnes said this week in a news conference. “They did what they wanted to do and had a huge win against us.”
Consider that a lesson learned as No. 5 Tennessee prepares for its Saturday noon showdown on ESPN against a Kentucky team that isn’t 9-16 material but is struggling with a 1-3 start to Southeastern Conference play that includes last Saturday’s 78-52 humbling at Alabama and Tuesday night’s shocking 71-68 home loss against a rebuilding South Carolina.
Kentucky, which is 10-6 overall in John Calipari’s 14th season in Lexington, may face the Vols (14-2, 4-0) without two starters — senior forward Jacob Toppin suffered a shoulder injury in Tuscaloosa and sat out Tuesday, while five-star freshman guard Cason Wallace played just eight minutes against the Gamecocks before being pulled with back spasms.