South Carolina is winless in the SEC but Kentucky can take nothing for granted after loses in four of its past five games.
The Wildcats host the Gamecocks in an early game on Saturday. Here Cats Illustrated writers share takes on the matchup and predictions.
Jeff Drummond: The biggest danger in this game is judging South Carolina by its record and last-place standing in the SEC instead of noting how competitive the Gamecocks have been against some of the best teams in the league. This should really concern BBN right now as the Cats have lost four of their last five and are really struggling with the absence of starting point guard Lamont Butler. South Carolina has a legit superstar in Collin Murray-Boyles (15.5 ppg, 8.8 rpg, 2.5 apg, 1.6 spg, 1.5 bpg) who is capable of putting the Gamecocks on his shoulders and leading his team to an upset. The good news is this game is at Rupp Arena. Perhaps the home crowd can give the Cats a boost. I think they’ll have to sweat it out, though: Kentucky 83, South Carolina 78
David Sisk: We all know about the gauntlet that is the SEC. There are no breathers. But the closest thing to getting one would be hosting South Carolina and LSU. The Gamecocks are winless in nine league games with five of them coming at home. They have lost by 35 at Mississippi State, 20 at Oklahoma, 11 at Georgia, and 3 at Vandy. That’s an average loss of 17 points. Despite that, Kentucky’s current roster is an issue, and they have looked like a lower tier SEC team themselves in the past two games. SC’s best shot is to get the Cats into foul trouble and win at the line. They are a low scoring team who has shot 120 more free throws than their opponents. The higher the score the better for UK. If they have trouble putting the ball in the basket then anything could happen. Kentucky 79 South Carolina 70
Justin Rowland: I view this as a really big game in the big picture. As ridiculous as it sounds with a winless SEC team coming into Rupp Arena, this game feels dangerous. The most likely scenario is that Kentucky wins, and I'll call for UK to do that 80-75, and they could win comfortably. But South Carolina has not been playing bad basketball lately. They almost won at Florida, Mississippi State, and Texas A&M in their last three road games. I can't pick South Carolina to beat a struggling UK team in Rupp, but those outcomes suggest to me that this game may well turn out close. All that matters is getting your footing and back in the win column on Saturday. Even if South Carolina is playing good basketball, if you were to lose that, its the kind of loss that could really hurt you seed-wise with the gauntlet remaining. The Gamecocks have not quite been able to score well enough to finish these road games but Kentucky's defense is going to have to play better.
