After going 1-1 last week with the loss at #25 Ole Miss and the win over South Carolina at home, Kentucky now sits at 16-7 on the season and 5-5 in conference play. The Wildcats only have eight more regular season games left on the schedule and only four more home games. One of those games is tonight’s match up against the #5 Tennessee Volunteers.

Let’s rewind to only two short weeks ago on January 28th when Kentucky walked into Thompson-Boling Arena and upset #8 Tennessee at home. This is one of the fastest turnaround games I can remember in my lifetime where Kentucky will play Tennessee again, now twice within two weeks of the regular season. The ‘Cats are looking for the season sweep tonight over the Vols, but will be trying to do so without the help of Jaxson Robinson this time.

Kentucky has their luck cut out for them tonight as they are the most banged up they have been all season. The blue will miss Robinson’s offensive presence as he has averaged 14.4 points per game over the last five games. Not to forget, he also led the Wildcats (with the help of Koby Brea) to their win down there this season, putting up 17 points and 4 three-pointers in Knoxville.

I know Lamont Butler shows ‘Probable’ on the Initial Injury Report, but one has to worry about how healthy he truly is just in general. If he’s potentially going to miss this game after just returning last game, and missing the three games before, how healthy was he for the Gamecocks?

Also, you have Andrew Carr now who is cleared to play, but we still don’t know if that lingering back injury is going to give him troubles as well.

Tennessee is playing some of their best basketball of the season and is solidifying themselves as one of the top 5-10 teams in the country, in my opinion. Since their loss to Kentucky, they have went on a three-game winning streak beating two top-15 teams in Florida and Missouri, as well as, beating Oklahoma by double digits in Norman.

As bad as I want to pick Kentucky to win, I think Tennessee comes into Rupp and gets revenge over the Wildcats after they beat the Volunteers on their own home court earlier this year. Tennessee wins a close one, 82-77, with Kentucky’s MVP of the game being Amari Williams.

Some other predictions from Cats Coverage staff include:

Jacob Childers: 77-71, Tennessee. MVP – Lamont Butler

Nate Unthank: 70-66, Kentucky. MVP – Lamont Butler

Tanin Smith: 74-69, Kentucky. MVP – Otega Oweh

Braden Nevius: 74-64, Tennessee. MVP – Ansley Almonor

Tres Terrell: 80-74, Kentucky. MVP – Koby Brea

Thanks for reading! We hope to see you again. To not miss any breaking news, follow us on Facebook and X/Twitter to see our daily content in real time.