Texas at Kentucky: 2020-21 storylines for Big 12/SEC Challenge matchup
The game that will be capping off the SEC/Big 12 Challenge will tip-off at 8 pm at Rupp Arena between Texas and Kentucky. When originally scheduled this matchup had endless opportunities to be the main event bout between two projected top-25 teams. Now, two months into the season it seems ESPN will be lucky if they are airing a top-5 SEC/Big12 contest in their prime time slot.
The Texas Longhorns and the Kentucky Wildcats both come into this game struggling, albeit to different degrees and for different reasons, each team is probably happy to be facing the other. The Wildcats’ struggles not only stem from the start of the season but have continued throughout, whereas the Longhorns’ struggles have been more recent and they have managed it much better.
The Wildcats’ who were ranked No.n10 in the pre-season and then fell to No.20 in week one, have few resume-building victories. With freshman forward Brandon Boston (12.1 ppg) leading the way offensively the Wildcats’ best wins have come versus Florida and LSU. Whereas wins versus Kansas, North Carolina, and Alabama twice would have been great for their resume, the eventual losses were nowhere as harmful as their losses at the hands of Notre Dame, Auburn, and Georgia.
The Longhorns have effectively played with eight scholarship players while losing to Texas Tech and Oklahoma as they defeated Kansas State in-between those two games. A healthy Longhorns squad being led by Andrew Jones (14.3 ppg) and three other double-digit scorers have managed key victories over Kansas, North Carolina, and West Virginia.
The pressure on the WIldcats may or may not be mounting, as it depends on how much they actually care, but if they hope to be anywhere near a conversation about being on the bubble as the season enters February they need a victory. For the Longhorns, they are hoping to avoid a loss that would drop them come Selection Sunday. A win versus a Wildcats’ team that took Alabama to the wire, especially if the Longhorns’ are undermanned, will do more for their confidence by evening their recent record to 2-2.