Texas Longhorns vs. Kentucky Wildcats College Basketball prediction, preview
Texas and Kentucky have both been riding heaters lately in the SEC. The Longhorns cooled off with a home loss to Texas A&M over the weekend, but prior to that had a pair of impressive upsets at Alabama and versus Vanderbilt. The Wildcats came back from down 20 at LSU and down 17 at Tennessee to win a pair of road games last week, extending their winning streak to three games since an ugly home loss to Missouri.
These two teams meet in Lexington on Wednesday night, and we could be in for a rock fight right out of the gates. Texas is averaging 38.6 points per game in the first half of its SEC games this season, but the number is a little inflated due to the competition. Teams like Bama and Vandy that play with pace and rely on offense sped Texas up, which Kentucky will not do. If we look at the Longhorns’ most recent game against the Aggies, they went for just 29 points in the first half.
Kentucky’s recent games have been a tale of two halves. Against Tennessee, the Wildcats scored just 31 in the first half, before catching fire for 49 points in the second half of the comeback victory. The win at LSU was an even more aggressive split, with just 22 points at the break, before ripping off 53 points in the second half of the win that ended with a buzzer beater.
If we look at Kentucky’s scoring output in the first half of games against SEC competition, it’s averaging just 32.6 points. Kentucky only speeds up when its desperate, which won’t be the case in the first half of this game. Texas plays at the 199th adjusted tempo, per KenPom, and the Wildcats rank just 184th in that category themselves.
I’m expecting a slow start to this matchup, and like a play on the first half under.
