Tennessee Stops Meeks, Not Kentucky

A month ago, Tennessee was torched on their home court for 54 points by Jodie Meeks. The Volunteers really wanted to stop Meeks this time. Even Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl talked about his team being motivated to stop Meeks. Well the Vols won the battle, but lost the war by losing to the Wildcats 77-58.

Jodie Meeks was held in check with only 14 points on only 4-for-14 shooting (0-for-7 from outside). The problem for Tennessee was that the rest of the Wildcat team shot 24-for-33 -- a blistering 72.7 percent. Patrick Patterson looked very healthy dropping 19 points on 75 percent shooting and Darius Miller had 17 on a perfect 6-for-6 day.

Tennessee's shooting was suspect, at best, in this game. They stayed in it through the first half with better offensive rebounding that allowed them to get second and third chances. Those opportunities started drying up in the second half as Kentucky became more effective at boxing out and getting the boards.

This was another blow for Tennessee as they were swept by Kentucky this year and are only 2-4 against the five teams ahead of them in the SEC. As strong as their non-conference record was to make their computer numbers look good, their performance in the SEC has been that of a bubble team.

The win helps Kentucky in its bid for an at-large bid. They grab another win against a team with a good RPI number -- though after this Tennessee will no longer be an RPI top-25 team -- putting them at 4-4 against RPI top-50.