Kentucky vs. Vandy preview





  Saturday afternoon Kentucky faces an always dangerous Vandy team, at in my opinion the second toughest venue in the SEC behind the "O" dome in Florida.  In the past Kentucky has fared pretty well at Vandy (41-25) winning the last meeting at Memorial Gym by the score of 58-56.  But they had lost their previous 4 meetings in Nashville, one of them being a 41 point beat down in 2008 under former coach Billy G. 

  The crowd at Memorial is always loud and obnoxious, and the strange setup of the raised floor and the benches being under each basket makes it tough for any opposing team coming in.  And it always seems that when Kentucky comes to town every player on Vandys team even on the bench becomes Ray Allen from 3 point range.  But to echo the words of coach Cal, "we are every teams Super Bowl", and we should expect their best shot every night.

  Now that is where the players who have been to Vandy before and know what to expect need to step up and help calm what I'm sure will be a bunch of nervous freshman.  The "upperclassman" seemed to do just that on Tuesday night in a big win over the always annoying Vols of Tennessee.  Now if they can just have the same effect Saturday, then the Cats should be fine.  But if they resort to their old habits then we could be in for a long day.

  Let's take a look at what the Cats will be up against come Saturday:


Vandy is setting at 16-6 and a conference record of 4-4 and beating some decent teams along the way.

Here is some stats for the Vandy starters:

                                          PPG         RPG
(F) Lance Goulbourne:         7.7            7.6

(F) Jeffery Taylor               14.9             5.2

(C) Festus Ezeli                12.8             6.1

(G) Brad Tinsley                10.5             4.1

(G) John Jenkins                19.2            3.3

Key Reserves:                    PPG         RPG

(F) Rod Odom                       4.7            2.8

(F) Steve Tchiengang            5.2            3.4

  I for one am dreading this game more than any other.  I think it's just because I hate playing at Memorial more than any other place we go.  But if everyone stays focused, plays with the intensity we saw Tuesday, then we should see a great game from the Cats.  But once again if they come out slow, and with careless mistakes, then it will be a loss.