Tennessee Volunteers vs. Kentucky Wildcats
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Two of the top teams in the SEC East get it on in Lexington in what should amount to be the premier college basketball betting matchup of “Rivalry Week.” For the first of two battles in the next two weeks, the Kentucky Wildcats (23-1, 11-11 ATS) will face the Tennessee Volunteers (18-5, 9-10-1 ATS). The Cats rolled to a 66-55 win over Alabama on Tuesday night at home, but that wasn’t enough to beat the 15-point CBB point spread. The Vols are in the midst of a tough stretch of games, and they started that off with a 90-71 loss in Nashville against the Commodores earlier this week.

The Volunteers have just been plain awful in their L/6 games. They are only 1-5 ATS in those six, and they’ve only topped the 80-point barrier once in SEC play this season after doing in five times in 2008-’09. Offensively, this team just isn’t the same without G Tyler Smith, who was booted off of the team 12 games into the season. F Wayne Chism and G Scotty Hopson are the only two double-digit point scorers on the team, and they’ll both have to go bananas for the boys from Rocky Top to escape Rupp Arena with a ‘W’.

How on earth can you stop the Wildcats? Even if you take out G John Wall’s 16.8 points and 6.3 assists per game this year, Kentucky still looks like an unstoppable force. Fs DeMarcus Cousins and Patrick Patterson are arguably the most dynamic inside duo in the land. They’re combining to score 31.3 points and bring in 17.4 rebounds per game. Then there’s Wall, who can light it up from anywhere on the court. HC John Calipari has been on his freshman for turnovers this year though, as his 93 in just 23 games played really is too high, even for a point guard.

The Cats have absolutely owned the college basketball betting proceedings in this series. They are 4-0 ATS over the L/2 seasons, going 3-1 SU in that stretch. Kentucky is also 13-3 SU in the L/16 clashes, a statistic that is most likely only going to get better after Saturday night.

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