Kentucky is amidst their most challenging week of college basketball so far this season. Tonight the Wildcats play the first matchup of their two road games this week, facing the Clemson Tigers in the ACC/SEC Challenge.

This is the first true road test for Mark Pope’s squad as the Duke game was on a neutral court in Atlanta. This will be a good challenge for Kentucky as it’s a new task they haven’t faced thus far.

The last time Kentucky played basketball was back on November 29th, right after Thanksgiving. The Wildcats were in Rupp Arena where they rolled over the Georgia State Panthers, 105-76. This 100+ scoring performance helped keep Kentucky’s scoring average inside Rupp Arena at a staggering 100 points per game this season.

Tonight’s matchup tips off at 9:30 PM eastern time and ESPN will be handling the broadcast. Clemson is currently 7-1 on the season and their lone loss of the year came at Boise State on the road. Their seven wins are kind of underwhelming to say the least. Their best victory out of those games was against an average Penn State team on a neutral court.

I think the game could go one of two ways. I think Kentucky could come out extremely flat like they have in a couple of games this season and then let the road crowd get into it, or Kentucky comes in hot and knocks down a couple of threes and makes the opposing crowd not as big of a factor from the start, helping the Wildcats’ favor of winning. I think it will be a slower start just because of it being a new road environment, but with that being said it isn’t true everyone. Andrew Carr has had plenty of experience playing against Clemson during his time at Wake Forest, facing them three times and scoring 4, 18, and 17 points in those contests, leaving with two wins.

I think Kentucky handles Clemson pretty handily but I think it stays close until the mid-way point in the second half. Kentucky wins a good road test game 84-75, with the MVP being Carr himself.

Some more the Cats Coverage staff predictions are as followed:

Jack Wagner: 88-80, Kentucky. MVP – Otega Oweh

Tres Terrell: 85-80, Kentucky. MVP – Andrew Carr

Braden Nevius: 86-79, Kentucky. MVP – Andrew Carr

Ethan Grantz: 85-74, Kentucky. MVP – Jaxson Robinson

Jacob Childers: 81-77, Kentucky. MVP – Otega Oweh

John Michael Frey: 79-73, Kentucky. MVP – Andrew Carr

Tanin Smith: 84-71, Kentucky. MVP – Lamont Butler

Nate Unthank: 90-77, Kentucky. MVP – Jaxson Robinson

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