Between now and when Kentucky basketball tips off against Tennessee in an NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 game on Friday, the old adage that it’s hard to beat a team three times will be unnecessarily and erroneously repeated into oblivion.
It’s easy to do so when the better team is clear-cut. Here’s a hint, it’s not so clear despite the Wildcats sweeping the regular-season meetings. This game will look nothing like those two.
It would behoove UK not to bring those wins into Lucas Oil Stadium because — aside from their uniform colors —nothing in this matchup in Indianapolis will be like the Cats’ victories over the Vols.
The rotation that will determine the outcome for the Cats is very different than those that decided the first two games. UK will start its third different lineup against the Volunteers.
Guard Lamont Butler missed the 78-73 win in Knoxville on Jan. 28 — the first game he was forced to sit out with a left shoulder injury. Andrew Carr played one minute that game due to recurring back issues. And guard Jaxson Robinson, who is out for the season with a wrist injury, started and had 17 points.
In that first meeting, UK’s starters accounted for 71 points or 91% of the scoring. By the second game, the bench chipped in 26 points led by 11 from freshman Trent Noah and eight from freshman Travis Perry.
Butler was back in the lineup for the Cats’ 75-64 win at home on Feb. 11. But Robinson was out, and while Carr played 19 minutes, he still wasn’t back in the starting lineup.
Reserve Ansley Almonor started both games against the Vols in the regular season for UK. (He scored double figures in both, too, netting 12 points in Knoxville and 13 at home.) That won’t be the case Friday.
Wildcats coach Mark Pope tightened the rotation in their second-round win against Illinois. With Kentucky relatively healthy, he went with the starters for longer stretches. Only Collin Chandler and Brandon Garrison played double-digit minutes from off the bench.
Chandler now appears to be the Cats’ best backup option at point guard. Perry still was trying to fit that role in their previous games with Tennessee. As a 21-year-old freshman, Chandler brings a more physical presence to playing the position, and he’s 11 for 22 from 3-point range over the last six games.
Tennessee will match up against a different Kentucky team than it faced before.
But so will the Cats.
Tennessee played out of character in its home loss in Knoxville. For some unknown reason, the Vols jacked up 45 3-point attempts, which was the most in coach Rick Barnes’ 10 years in Knoxville and the second most in program history.
In the second game, Vols leading scorer Chaz Lanier missed all seven of his 3-point attempts, which was only the second time this season he didn’t make at least one.
That’s not likely to happen again, either.
The biggest intangible for Round 3 is what is at stake: a spot in the Elite Eight, where UK hasn’t been since 2019.
Only Butler knows what it’s like to play in a Sweet 16 game. For most of Kentucky’s roster, including Pope as a head coach, the first- and second-round wins were their first taste of tournament success.
The Vols returned four rotation players, led by point guard Zakai Zeigler, who battled Purdue last season with a Final Four berth on the line before eventually losing 72-66.
Maybe that gives the Vols the advantage. Or maybe this UK squad is so much better than Tennessee it can beat the Vols in three very different ways.
Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at clbrown1@gannett.com, follow him on X at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter at profile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to make sure you never miss one of his columns.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: March Madness Sweet 16 bracket: Kentucky-Tennessee round 3 different
