The Cats Illustrated staff will be juggling two games tomorrow, just as fans will.
CI's Music City Bowl predictions were posted earlier in the day, and we're following that up with a round of picks for tomorrow's basketball game between Kentucky and Louisville.
Since UK is such a heavy favorite, we'll keep it simple.
What would it take for Louisville to win tomorrow?
Travis Graf: Kentucky hasn’t had nearly the season that they expected at the start of the year, but Louisville is one of the worst teams in the country. The ‘Cats have the advantage at every position, even point guard despite El Ellis putting up better scoring numbers. Louisville doesn’t have a true point guard on the roster, and if you think Kentucky’s offense is bad, it looks like the Warriors offense compared to what Louisville runs. Louisville has one guard on the roster and despite their big, tall lineup, they don’t rebound particularly well.
David Sisk: As poorly as Kentucky’s season is going, it feels like the glory days when compared to Louisville. We have spoken repeatedly about UK’s play versus high majors compared to low majors. A win over the Cardinals doesn’t change anything. I’d take Duquesne and Yale over them. In fact, they’re probably the worst Power Five team in the country. Louisville’s only hope is that there is as much apathy in the Kentucky team as there is with some of the fan base at this point. Kentucky will have to play at its absolute worst for there to be any shot of losing this game.
Jeff Drummond: It feels like Louisville would need a "perfect storm" of events to occur to leave Rupp Arena with a win. As bad as Kentucky has been playing to this point in the season, the Cardinals have been struggling on a whole different level. Kenny Payne's squad would need at least two players to have out-of-body experiences on the offensive end of the floor. It's not uncommon for one to come into Rupp Arena and do that. The place seems to bring out the best in at least one opposing shooter. But they'll need at least two. Louisville will also have to catch the Cats on a bad, bad day. Maybe everyone is shooting poorly, and the groans and pressure mounts at Rupp. Maybe Oscar Tshiebwe gets into serious foul trouble. But, to UK's credit, we haven't seen too many poor performances against teams with the talent level of UofL.
What's your prediction for how the game will play out?
Graf: I think this game is going to be an ugly matchup, but Kentucky is just more talented than Louisville. This is the worst Louisville team possibly ever and Kentucky has played well against mediocre-to-bad teams all season. I think Antonio Reeves has a big game and knocks down a handful of outside shots in absence of CJ Fredrick. I’ll go Cats 78, Cards 54.
Sisk: This may be the least anticipated Kentucky/Louisville game ever. But the Cats need to seize every opportunity possible to get things right before they head back in to SEC play. As much as there has been conversation about offensive overhaul this is more about players not named Oscar Tshiebwe gaining some type of confidence. Kentucky 75 Louisville 56
Drummond: Kentucky 80, Louisville 61 -- I don't think the Cats blow the Cards out in this one. It would be unusual for John Calipari to run it up on Kenny Payne, although that would be beneficial to Big Blue Nation's psyche right now. I think Cason Wallace and Antonio Reeves have big scoring days to lead the Cats to victory.
