Kentucky Wildcats vs. Tennessee Volunteers College Basketball prediction, preview
Both Kentucky and Tennessee are off stressful wins this week. The Vols prevailed over Texas A&M in double overtime as a near double digit home favorite on Tuesday, while Kentucky needed a shot at the buzzer to win at LSU on Wednesday. However, the Vols have no travel involved here, plus an extra day of prep heading into a showdown against the Wildcats.
Kentucky had to come back from down 20 points at LSU, and just barely earned its first road win of the season after dropping the first two true road games. Now the going only gets tougher, playing a second straight road game in a much tougher environment at Tennessee. The Vols are a perfect 10-0 at home this season, and should be able to lean on elite defense to slow down the Kentucky offense.
Despite the win in Baton Rouge, the Tigers still covered the game, which dropped Kentucky to 1-4 ATS over its last five games. More importantly, the Wildcats have been awful in the underdog role this season — 0-3 SU and ATS, losing by 19.3 points per game and failing to cover by 13.8 points per game.
I’ll back Tennessee to go wire to wire here rather than lay 6.5 points. The Halftime/Fulltime market on DraftKings Sportsbook means the Vols need to lead at halftime and go on to win the game to cash our ticket. If you listened to the DKN Daily Bets pod linked below, we also have a Kansas/Tennessee moneyline parlay in pocket that wraps up with the Vols, following Kansas’ dominant win on Friday night.
