Three Games To Decide Regular Season SEC Champion

Kentucky has dominated at home, currently 17-0, beating their last four visitors by double digits but almost received their second loss of the season on the road in a 81-75 OT victory over Mississippi State.

The Wildcats now head into their toughest three-game stretch, which presents the two toughest road games of the season, playing against the second-best (Vanderbilt) and third-best (Tennessee) team in the conference.

In between the two Saturday games will be a home-game against South Carolina —the only team to beat Kentucky this season.

The next two road games are against teams that the Wildcats have convincingly beat at home this season.

This time around there is more on the line. And the first game on the road comes against Vanderbilt with what could be a SEC East Division clinching game.

If the Cats can beat the Commodores on the road, then they will have a two game lead over Vandy with four games remaining in the SEC.

The task will prove to be tough as the Commodores are the only other team in the SEC to be undefeated at home this season 13-0.

Commodore center A.J. Ogilvy will have his hands full after having his best game of the season with 27 points, shooting 8-of-10 from the field.

The first time playing against Kentucky, Ogilvy was not much of a factor from the field shooting 2-of-4 but was affective from the line shooting 11-of-13.

Vanderbilt's leading rebounder will need to come up huge on the boards after only grabbing four and allowing 18 offensive rebounds —eight from Cousins —last game against Kentucky who out rebounded the Commodores 39-21.

The most experienced Commodore, Senior guard Jermaine Beal, has played well against Kentucky averaging 18 points in his past three visits, and is best when he gets to the line.

Beal will be the pace-maker for Vanderbilt and will have to control the pace of the game from the upbeat tempo of the running ‘Cats.

Speaking of players who can change the pace of the game, Kentucky knows all too well about South Carolina guard Devan Downey who dropped 30 points in a 68-62 victory over the Wildcats.

Kentucky’s only loss of the season didn’t come from the hands of Downey’s shooting as he shot 9-of-29 from the field, but rather from the poor shooting and a season-low 62 points.

Kentucky was also out matched in rebounds (40-38) and free-throw attempts (28-21) for the only time this season.

Kentucky’s key components to success are rebounding and getting to the line. When they get beat in both categories they will have a tough time against any team.

Kentucky beat Tennessee at home by 11 points this season and made eight more free-throws than the Volunteers but had 17 more attempts.

The poor free-throw shooting started with Cousins who shot 1-of-8 from the line and had a season low five points.

With only one loss at home coming to Vanderbilt, Tennessee will need to play in the hands of the home crowd.

The loss of Tyler Smith has hurt Tennessee against quality opponents and a guard or two must step up to fill the void as Wayne Chism can’t be the only guy to produce night in and night out.    

Tennessee doesn’t produce enough offensive fire power so they must rely on their defense to beat Kentucky.

Kentucky has shown its vulnerability on the road, but without Smith I don’t think Tennessee can beat a quality SEC opponent.

Tennessee, like South Carolina and Vanderbilt, must have more than one player to score close to 20 points.

All three teams have at least one-guy that you can trust on putting the ball in the bucket but must get help from role players, especially Kentucky, who provides more explosive-offensive players than any team in the country.

It shouldn’t go without saying that if Kentucky plays worse than they did at South Carolina —their worst game of the season —they are susceptible to lose against any team.

Although I don’t see it happening again against a team who is like yin and yang at home and on the road; going 11-2 at home and 1-8 on the road.

If Kentucky can get past Vanderbilt,  there will be no stopping them. The real test for Kentucky will be how they adapt to the adjustments of Vanderbilt and Tennessee.

Playing against a team who you have already beat at the beginning of the season is always tougher to beat the second time around.

The back stretch is always the toughest for any team as they get towards the end of the season, but the experience with game-time adjustments against familiar foes will prove vital as Kentucky heads into the Tournament.