View from 315A

Tennessee defeated Kentucky 63-60 yesterday at Thompson-Boling Arena. Tennessee is now 26-3 and 12-2 in conference play.

MPW and I sold our tickets to deflect the cost of our season tickets. My only regret is that we missed out on the Ernie Grunfeld figurines distributed to fans in honor of his #22 being retired.

The win means that Bruce Pearl now does not have a losing record against any SEC team. He is 3-3 against Kentucky. It also means that, with the exception of Texas, Tennessee has beaten every team it has played this season.

I honestly thought we were a lock to win the game on Friday when it was announced that Kentucky freshman Patrick Patterson would miss the remainder of the season with a stress fracture in his left ankle. Patterson was a blue chip recruit out of Huntington, West Virginia, who chose Kentucky over Duke and Florida. He leads all SEC freshman scorers with 16.4 points a game, and had a huge impact in Kentucky’s January 22nd win over Tennessee with 20 points and 8 rebounds.

He will be out approximately eight weeks and is wearing a cast on his foot, the school said. Kentucky did not announce how he sustained the injury. We had fun speculating as we watched the game.

As an aside, who names their child Pat Patterson? Perhaps, I have images of the openly homosexual wrestler Pat Patterson in my mind, but still...

It initially looked like Tennessee would win in a blowout, racking up a fifteen-point first half advantage. At 20-5, the game seemed over early, but Kentucky proved resilient. They hit numerous shot with little to no time on the shot clock.

Tyler Smith led the Vols with 15 points including the play of the game, dunking a beautiful pass from J.P. Prince.

It was a strange feeling to watch with the assumption that Tennessee should beat Kentucky in basketball...

With one more win, Tennessee will capture the SEC East Division and a share of the conference title. The Vols are trying to earn their first outright SEC regular season championship in 41 years.

Despite the win, the game marked the last game Tennessee was ranked #1. UT dropped to #4 in the polls by virtue of their loss rto Vanderbilt on Tuesday. Tennessee has maintained their #1 rank in the RPI.