Kentucky Wildcats Basketball: Tennessee- Past 5 Games
By Paul Jordan
Tomorrow night’s game between Kentucky and Tennessee is shaping up to be the biggest game of the season so far for the Cats. I don’t think we’re on a sinking ship, but it will determine the direction of it. UK has the home advantage at Rupp, while Tennessee will have their coach, Bruce Pearl, back on the sidelines. It will be interesting to see if his orange jacket can do wonders for him, or if the Cats will get their mojo back. Considering they play their best at home, I’m going with UK on this one. Let’s take a look back at the past five games against the Vols and how the Cats fared:
March 13, 2010: Kentucky beats Tennessee 74-45- The Cats faced the Vols in the SEC Tournament Semifinals in this game, and it was a pretty heated game for the most part. Despite playing on a neutral court in Tennessee, the majority of the crowd was decked out in blue. The game was pretty close in the first half, but after Tennessee went on a short run to tighten the score to 45-39, UK outscored the Vols 29-6 for the last 12 minutes of the game and blew the Vols out of the building. With a few three-point shots and fast break leads courtesy of Eric Bledsoe, Darnell Dodson, and John Wall, the Cats went on to the SEC Tournament Finals.
February 27, 2010: Tennessee beats Kentucky 74-65- Believe it or not, this was UK’s worse loss of the season. They loss a total of three games all under ten points. During the end of the regular season, though, this one hurt the most at the time. The Cats were down by 19 at one point, only to make a comeback and eventually tie the game within the last few minutes. Due to some turnovers and a few clutch baskets by Scotty Hopson, John Wall got to see J.P. Prince and Hopson perform his trademark dance in celebration after the game. I was at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. and threw my cellphone in frustration in front of people, and got a mixed reaction. It was a happy birthday indeed.
February 13, 2010: Kentucky beats Tennessee 73-62- This was one of the biggest games of the season for Kentucky. It was primetime on ESPN, the biggest crowd for College Gameday was there in the morning, and UK was debuting new uniforms and new LeBron shoes. It all worked out in the end. It was kind of an ugly game for UK in the first half, but they were able to pull away thanks to John Wall’s 24 points and Eric Bledsoe’s 16 points that helped spark a 20-4 UK run to end the game,
February 21, 2009: Kentucky beats Tennessee 77-58- I remember this game very well; despite growing up in Lexington and going to Rupp Arena plenty of times, this was my first true UK basketball game, and it was a great one. Patrick Patterson was back from an injury that kept him sidelined two weeks, and came back and had a solid game. But it was Darius Miller that shined for UK; he had a career-high 18 points in leading UK to the dominating win. It just so happened to be Billy Gillispie’s last win at Rupp Arena, before UK’s season turned for the worst.
January 13, 2009: Kentucky beats Tennessee 90-72- Jodie Meeks. 54 points. ‘Nuff said. The greatest individual performance I’ve personally ever witnessed, and one of, if not the best, in UK Athletics. I think we all remember this.
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