INDIANAPOLIS
No. 3 seed Kentucky plays No. 2 seed Tennessee in a semifinal game of the Midwest Regional of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament on Friday night at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Tipoff is scheduled for 7:39 p.m. ET on CBS. Andrew Catalon, Steve Lappas and Evan Washburn comprise the broadcast team.
Ben Roberts, Mark Story, Cameron Drummond, Ryan Hermens and yours truly will be reporting from courtside.You can follow Ben’s updates on Bluesky at @benrobertshl. You can follow the rest of us on X/Twitter at @markcstory, @ryanhermens, @cdrummond97 and @johnclayiv.
NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament bracket
UK-Tennessee live updates
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Kentucky head coach Mark Pope watches his team during an open practice at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on Thursday, a day before the Wildcats’ Sweet 16 game against Tennessee. Ryan C. Hermens [email protected]
Scouting report: Tennessee
Coach Rick Barnes’ Tennessee Volunteers improved to 29-7 with a 67-58 win against UCLA in a second-round game last Saturday at Rupp Arena. The Vols defeated Wofford 77-62 in their NCAA opener at Rupp. Tennessee is No. 5 in the KenPom adjusted overall efficiency ratings. It is No. 3 in adjusted defensive efficiency and No. 17 in adjusted offensive efficiency.
Tennessee is No. 3 nationally in 3-point defense, holding opponents to 28.3% behind the arc. The Vols are No. 23 in 2-point defense at 46.4%. Wofford shot 41.8% from the floor against UT, including 11-for-26 from 3-point range. UCLA shot 35.8%. The Bruins were 7-for-23 from 3-point range.
Tennessee’s leading scorer is Chaz Lanier at 18.1 points per game, but Lanier was 0-for-7 from 3 in UT’s 75-64 loss to UK in Lexington. Igor Milicic leads the Vols in rebounding at 6.8 per game. Zakai Zeigler leads Tennessee in assists at 7.4 per game. Zeigler was 1-for-11 from 3-point land in UT’s 78-73 loss to Kentucky in Knoxville. Tennessee was 11-for-45 from 3 in that loss.
Tennessee men’s basketball site
Box score from UK’s win over Tennessee in Knoxville
Box score from UK’s win over Tennessee in Lexington
Scouting report: Kentucky
Coach Mark Pope’s Kentucky Wildcats improved to 24-11 with an 84-75 win over Illinois in a second-round game last Sunday in Milwaukee. UK defeated Troy 76-57 in the first round. Kentucky is ranked 15th in KenPom’s adjusted overall efficiency rankings. UK is No. 10 in adjusted offensive efficiency and No. 46 in adjusted defensive efficiency.
The Cats are 22nd nationally in 3-point defense, holding opponents to 30.6%. UK is No. 24 in 3-point offense at 37.4% and No. 34 in 2-point offense at 55.7%. The Wildcats made 12 of 24 shots from 3-point range in each of their two regular-season wins over Tennessee.
Otega Oweh leads UK in scoring at 16.3 points per game. Oweh was 8-for-22 shooting from the floor and scored 23 points in the victories over Tennessee. Amari Williams leads the team in rebounding at 8.6 per game and assists at 3.2 per game. Williams grabbed 15 rebounds in UK’s win in Knoxville. Koby Brea led the Cats with 23 points in the win over Illinois.
Kentucky men’s basketball site
Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s win at Tennessee
Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s win over Tennessee at Rupp
