On the 16th of February, Tennessee made a road trip to Kentucky which is one of the hardest and loudest arenas to play in.  During the game against the Kentucky Wildcats, Tennessee started out solid and went at Kentucky early to establish a presence inside the painted area and keep the fans out of the game.  Kentucky handled the pressure from the Tennessee defense and had many open threes which spread the defense and later lead to driving lanes for other players.  At the end of the first half Kentucky lead 37-31 due to PJ Washington establishing a plethora of moves on the low blocks, and Keldon Johnson establishing a dead-eye from the three point line and hitting up to 4 three’s in the first half.

In the second half, Tennessee tried to make the game close but the shots were not falling for them as they were 40.7% from field on a 24-59 shooting night.  Tennessee tried to play through their two superstars in Admiral Schofield and Grant Williams. Schofield finished with 17 points and Williams finished with 16 points but fell short of victory as the Kentucky Wildcats upsets the top seed in the country.

Kentucky ended up winning by 17 points, which many would consider a “dominant” performance against the #1 ranked Tennessee.  A notable player on the Tennessee squad was Jordan Bone with 19 points and 6 assists.  Contributing to the upset on the Kentucky team was Tyler Herro with 15 points and 13 rebounds.