Know Your Opponent: Kentucky

By Bobby Hundley

Kentucky (UKAthletics.com)
Location: Lexington, Ky.
Rankings: No. 16 KenPom, No. 19 AP
Record: 8-2
Carolina Series History (Last Meeting): Carolina leads 24-15 (Carolina 75, Kentucky 73, March 26, 2017, Memphis, Tenn.)

Saturday marks Kentucky's third neutral-site game of the season, and the Wildcats will be hoping to reverse a negative trend. UK is 8-0 at Rupp Arena but 0-2 on neutral floors, losing to Duke in Indianapolis to open the year and then to Seton Hall two weeks ago at the Garden.

While neither loss is necessarily damaging in the long term, the 118-84 setback to Duke lingers as one of the defining results of the early season. It cemented the Blue Devils as a title favorite and set the tone for UK as a vulnerable team on defense. Kentucky currently ranks No. 54 in KenPom's adjusted defensive efficiency - the only time the Wildcats have finished outside the defensive top 50 under John Calipari was in 2013, when Big Blue Nation was forced to endure a first-round NIT loss at Robert Morris.

Kentucky's only top-100 win thus far was a 78-61 victory over UNCG on Dec. 1. The average KenPom ranking of UK's home opponents is 216. The Wildcats' final non-conference foes are Carolina, Louisville and Kansas, and a win over any of the three would quickly vault to the top of UK's résumé.

Calipari starts three freshmen, including leading scorer Keldon Johnson (16.1 ppg). The Oak Hill product makes nearly 59 percent of his 2s and 44 percent of his 3s while also getting to the line around six times per contest. First-year guards Ashton Hagans and Tyler Herro have rounded out the starting backcourt of late, with fellow freshman Immanuel Quickley also seeing plenty of minutes at both the 1 and 2 positions. Another freshman, guard Quade Green, recently opted to transfer.

The veteran of the team is also a newcomer to Lexington, though his is a name that will be familiar to Tar Heel fans. Stanford grad transfer Reid Travis has 21 points and six boards against UNC last fall at Maples Pavilion, and the 6-8 forward has been a key addition to Calipari's squad. The Minneapolis native is second on the team in both scoring (14.6 ppg) and rebounding (6.4 rpg) while also being one of the nation's best at getting to the foul line.

Sophomore big man P.J. Washington joins Travis in the starting frontcourt, and he has developed into an elite rebounder at both ends of the floor in his second season at UK. Washington, Travis and 6-10 freshman E.J. Montgomery have the Wildcats ranked third nationally in offensive rebounding percentage, making Kentucky one of just four teams collecting its own misses at a higher rate than UNC.

UK was picked to win the Southeastern Conference for the 14th time in 21 seasons in the preseason, and the Wildcats should certainly stack up as one of the powers in the league. But with four other teams in the KenPom top 30, the SEC looks to be at least as deep as it was in 2018, when the conference sent eight teams to the NCAA tournament. A win over Carolina on Saturday would go a long way toward Kentucky improving upon its No. 5 seed from a year ago.

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