Kentucky-Tennessee Betting Guide: Can Wildcats Survive Without Reid Travis?
USA TODAY Sports. Pictured: PJ Washington and Admiral Schofield
Kentucky at Tennessee Betting Odds
- Spread: Tennessee -2.5
- Over/Under: 142
- Time: 2 p.m. ET
- TV: CBS
>> All odds as of Friday night. Download The Action Network App to get real-time odds and live win probabilities on your bets.
The SEC is very much up for grabs heading into the second-to-last weekend of the regular season. Tennessee, Kentucky and LSU are all tied at the top, and this weekend could pretty much settle the race.
Can the Vols avenge a 17-point loss at Kentucky two weeks ago? Let’s dive in.
Market Moves
Tennessee opened at -2.5, with the total at 143.5. The line has stayed the same but the total has dropped 1.5 points since opening.
Betting is about split on this game as of Friday night. — Steve Petrella
Trends to Know
As an underdog in the John Calipari era, Kentucky has gone 10-17 straight up and 12-14-1 against the spread in the regular season. Against SEC opponents, the Wildcats have gone 4-10 SU and ATS when getting points — John Ewing
Be sure to track public betting percentages (which you can do here). Since 2005, in matchups of top-10 teams, the squad that receives a majority of spread tickets has gone 84-107-7 (44.0%) ATS in regular-season games. — Ewing
Heading into Saturday, Tennessee is the 15th-best scoring offense in the country according to points per game with an average of 83.2.
Under Calipari, Kentucky is 27-13-2 (67.5%) ATS when facing teams that are averaging at least 80 PPG, with the Wildcats covering by 3.9 an average of points per game. When the game is played in January or later, opponents haven’t eclipsed 80 points since Jan. 30, 2016 against Kansas — a streak of 15 consecutive games in that spot. — Evan Abrams
When top-10 teams play a conference game after losing at least five consecutive games ATS, they’re 24-6-2 (80%) ATS, covering by an average of 4.5 points per game. — Abrams
The Stakes
Kentucky and Tennessee (No. 5 and No. 7 in the NET Rankings, respectively) sit in a three-way tie with LSU for first place in the SEC. LSU does hold the tiebreaker, but with road games against Alabama and Florida coming up, the Tigers will likely lose one more game.
This game could decide who wins the SEC regular season and who gets a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.
A home loss by the Vols in all likelihood takes them out of contention for both, while Kentucky would still have a more realistic (but not easy) path. — Stuckey