Fresh off of a SEC regular season title win over South Carolina this past Wednesday, No. 4 Tennessee is gearing up for their fourth straight Top 20 matchup with a game against No. 15 Kentucky in the regular-season finale from the Food City Center in Knoxville.
Tennessee defeated Kentucky by a score of 103-92 in Rupp Arena in early February. The Vols are 3-2 in their last five games against the Wildcats.
With Tennessee having already captured the SEC regular season championship, head coach Rick Barnes said on Friday that the team is still just as locked in because of the respect they have for Kentucky, especially in their last home game of the season. Tennessee forward Josiah-Jordan James also echoed the same sentiment, talking up the rivalry aspect between two teams that don’t like each other.
Barnes spoke to the media on Friday afternoon in Knoxville and hit several different topics during his 12-minute conversation. Barnes spoke about the last game against Kentucky and what makes the Wildcats so dangerous, the Vols’ SEC regular season championship this past week, and the importance of Tennessee’s senior class (James, Santiago Vescovi, Dalton Knecht, Colin Coyne) in all aspects of the program over the last handful of years.
No. 4 Tennessee will host No. 15 Kentucky at 4:00 p.m. ET on Friday as the Vols look for their program-record seventh-straight win over ranked competition.
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Check out Barnes’ press conference from Friday in Knoxville below:
