Tonight's Matchup: UK vs Mississippi State

Tonight were finally back home in the comforts of good ol' Rupp after making a trip down south to play in what many would consider the worst arena in the SEC and college basketball for that matter. I'd argue Rupp is still more intimidating but that there's just something about that Vandy court...

Anyway, tonight we play against a team from the west as Rick Stansbury brings his bulldog squad to town. The last matchup between the two schools occurred during the SEC Championship game last season in which UK won in overtime 75-74. The people who run the numbers seem to favor the cats tonight by a large margin and a quick comparisons of the numbers seem to favor the cats as well.

Overall National Rankings:

.........................................UK .......Miss State

Points Per Game............30th...........206th
Rebounds Per Game......26th...........113th
Assists Per Game.........171st...........271st
Field Goal Pct..................77th...........240th

Other Numbers:

Overall Record................17-7.............13-11
SEC Record.....................5-5..............5-5
Home Record..................11-0.............10-4
Away Record....................3-6..............2-4
Vs Top 25.........................3-2..............1-1

While the SEC record for both teams is identical at this point at 5-5, 4 of Miss State's 5 wins were against the weaker west. Their one east win was against Florida back on Jan 29th which can cause a bit of a concern but they were home and most likely just got real lucky and caught Florida on a bad night for them. Overall the numbers favor UK and with our home winning streak stretching into last season, a UK team that just came off a tough loss, and after a player's only meeting earlier this week where the players met to try to work out their issues and get themselves back in gear this game should hopefully be a much easier game for the cats and give them a chance to get back on track and boost their confidence back up.

Prediction: UK by at least 10.

Catch the game on ESPN or 98.1 FM The Bull @ 7:00 PM

Go Cats!