Three Facts:
1. Time: The game is at 6:30 p.m. EST on ESPN.
2. Series: UK leads the all-time series against Texas A&M 5-2. It's the fewest wins Kentucky has against an opponent in the SEC and the second fewest losses. The line on Saturday (hasn't been posted).
3. Records: Kentucky is 20-6 (10-3 SEC). Last game 80-70 win vs. Tennessee.
Texas A&M is 19-7 (8-5 SEC). Last game: 71-56 win over Ole Miss.
Three Keys:
1. Road Woes: Kentucky hasn't been great on the road this season but perhaps the Cats have turned the corner. Last weekend against South Carolina Kentucky blewout the Gamecocks in a battle for first place in the SEC. UK will at least have a share of the SEC regardless of Saturday's outcome, but College Station is no easy place to play. Texas A&M has lost just one home game this season. Last year when Kentucky traveled to College Station an undefeated UK team needed two overtimes to knock off an Aggie squad that eventually missed the NCAA Tournament.
2. Speaking of OT: The last two games Kentucky has played at Texas A&M went to overtime, with UK winning both games. Last year's double-overtime game ended with an 80-74 win and UK's first trip every to College Station in 2013 resulted in a 72-68 overtime win. Kentucky has played in just one overtime game this year, a loss at Kansas, while the Aggies have avoided overtime entirely this season. Will the Cats in College Station once again lead to overtime?
3. Bring down the House: Texas A&M has a spread offensive attack but transfer Danuel House is the Aggies go-to scorer. He averages a team high in minutes and points and could be a matchup problem without Alex Poythress in the game. At 6-foot-7, he's a slasher that also loves to fire from the perimeter. He's scored in double-figures for eight straight games and will likely need to make that nine if Texas A&M is going to knock off the Cats.
Three Quotes:
1. Calipari on A&M's bigs: "They're so big. If you don't have a presence that can hold up down there they could dominate you"
2. Calipari on UK only having a day off: "Probably the guys that played a lot of minutes will do treatments and stretching and that kind of stuff, and then have the guys that didn’t play as many minutes do individuals and then we’ll come together and maybe script some of our stuff that we want to use against them. Then we’ll probably walk through their stuff before we get on the plane and go down there and that will be about it."
3. A&M coach Billy Kennedy on Ulis: “He definitely needs to be strongly considered. A veteran who makes everybody around him better and runs that team and has good command and control of what they do offensively and defensively. I think he’s definitely somebody that needs to be strongly considered, especially with Kentucky playing as well as they are and in the position they are in to possibly win the league.”
1. Time: The game is at 6:30 p.m. EST on ESPN.
2. Series: UK leads the all-time series against Texas A&M 5-2. It's the fewest wins Kentucky has against an opponent in the SEC and the second fewest losses. The line on Saturday (hasn't been posted).
3. Records: Kentucky is 20-6 (10-3 SEC). Last game 80-70 win vs. Tennessee.
Texas A&M is 19-7 (8-5 SEC). Last game: 71-56 win over Ole Miss.
Three Keys:
1. Road Woes: Kentucky hasn't been great on the road this season but perhaps the Cats have turned the corner. Last weekend against South Carolina Kentucky blewout the Gamecocks in a battle for first place in the SEC. UK will at least have a share of the SEC regardless of Saturday's outcome, but College Station is no easy place to play. Texas A&M has lost just one home game this season. Last year when Kentucky traveled to College Station an undefeated UK team needed two overtimes to knock off an Aggie squad that eventually missed the NCAA Tournament.
2. Speaking of OT: The last two games Kentucky has played at Texas A&M went to overtime, with UK winning both games. Last year's double-overtime game ended with an 80-74 win and UK's first trip every to College Station in 2013 resulted in a 72-68 overtime win. Kentucky has played in just one overtime game this year, a loss at Kansas, while the Aggies have avoided overtime entirely this season. Will the Cats in College Station once again lead to overtime?
3. Bring down the House: Texas A&M has a spread offensive attack but transfer Danuel House is the Aggies go-to scorer. He averages a team high in minutes and points and could be a matchup problem without Alex Poythress in the game. At 6-foot-7, he's a slasher that also loves to fire from the perimeter. He's scored in double-figures for eight straight games and will likely need to make that nine if Texas A&M is going to knock off the Cats.
Three Quotes:
1. Calipari on A&M's bigs: "They're so big. If you don't have a presence that can hold up down there they could dominate you"
2. Calipari on UK only having a day off: "Probably the guys that played a lot of minutes will do treatments and stretching and that kind of stuff, and then have the guys that didn’t play as many minutes do individuals and then we’ll come together and maybe script some of our stuff that we want to use against them. Then we’ll probably walk through their stuff before we get on the plane and go down there and that will be about it."
3. A&M coach Billy Kennedy on Ulis: “He definitely needs to be strongly considered. A veteran who makes everybody around him better and runs that team and has good command and control of what they do offensively and defensively. I think he’s definitely somebody that needs to be strongly considered, especially with Kentucky playing as well as they are and in the position they are in to possibly win the league.”
