Next up: The most consequential men’s basketball game ever between Kentucky and Tennessee
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Game day: Kentucky 84, Illinois 75
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Sunday night’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Illinois at the NCAA Tournament in Milwaukee.
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A look ahead to the Kentucky Wildcats’ next game in the men’s NCAA Tournament Midwest Regional round of 16:
The opponent
No. 3 seed Kentucky (24-11) will face border rival and No. 2 seed Tennessee (29-7) on Friday, March 28, at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
Coach Rick Barnes’ Volunteers got 20 points from Chaz Lanier, 15 from Zakai Zeigler and 13 from Jordan Gainey in a 67-58 victory Saturday over UCLA in the round of 32 at Rupp Arena.
Series history
Kentucky has played no opponent more often than the 241 times it has faced Tennessee. The Wildcats lead the all-time series 163-78.
As UK head man, Mark Pope is 2-0 vs. Tennessee.
Volunteers coach Rick Barnes is 12-14 overall against Kentucky, 11-12 as Tennessee coach.
Most recent meetings
Kentucky scored a regular-season sweep over Tennessee in 2024-25.
Playing without a true point guard due to injures, the No. 12 Wildcats upset the No. 8 Volunteers 78-73 on Jan. 28 in Knoxville. UK rode balance to the victory, as all five Cats starters — Koby Brea (18 points), Jaxson Robinson (17), Otega Oweh (14) Ansley Almonor (12) and Amari Williams (10) — scored in double figures.
Tennessee took a whopping 45 3-point shots in the game, making only 11.
No. 15 UK also took the rematch over No. 5 UT, winning 75-64 at Rupp Arena even though the Wildcats lost starting point guard Lamont Butler to injury during the game.
Homegrown Kentucky freshmen Trent Noah (11 points) and Travis Perry (eight) were huge for UK off the bench.
Power ranking
In the Pomeroy ratings, Tennessee is No. 5 and Kentucky is No. 17.
Know your foe
1. Since losing to Kentucky at Rupp Arena on Feb. 11, Tennessee has subsequently gone 9-2 with wins over then-No. 7 Texas A&M, then-No. 6 Alabama and then-No. 3 Auburn.
The Volunteers’ only losses since falling to UK came on the road at Mississippi by two points and to then-No. 4 Florida in the SEC Tournament finals.
2. Kentucky has previously only played three NCAA Tournament games against fellow Southeastern Conference members. The Wildcats are 1-2 in those games.
In the 1986 NCAA Tournament, UK beat Alabama 68-63 in the Sweet 16. Eddie Sutton’s Wildcats faced LSU in the following contest in the Elite Eight and were beaten 59-57.
John Calipari’s 2018-19 Cats were also beaten by a SEC foe in the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight, falling to Auburn 77-71 in overtime.
(Kentucky played and beat current SEC member Arkansas 64-59 in the 1978 Final Four, but the Razorbacks were not then a member of the SEC.)
3. In defeating Wofford (77-62) and UCLA in its first two NCAA Tournament games, Tennessee shot the ball well. That is significant because the Volunteers have, at times in the Rick Barnes coaching era, been a bit offensively challenged.
So far in this year’s NCAA Tournament, the Vols have hit a combined 42% from 3-point range (21-for-50) and made 76.3% of their free throws (29 of 38).
Interestingly, given that Kentucky has played in 17 men’s NCAA Tournament Final Fours in its history and Tennessee has played in none, the Volunteers program will have more recent March Madness success to call upon in Friday night’s meeting.
The Volunteers are in the Sweet 16 for the third straight year. Kentucky has not advanced to a regional semifinal in an NCAA Tournament since 2019.
This story was originally published March 23, 2025 at 6:47 PM with the headline "Next up: The most consequential men’s basketball game ever between Kentucky and Tennessee."
