Kentucky faces a tough challenge against Mississippi State, aiming to bounce back from a recent loss. Can they overcome the Bulldogs' strong defense and reach their scoring threshold?
Mississippi State is one of five SEC teams still unbeaten in conference play. It's coming off two easy wins over South Carolina and Vanderbilt, and now it's at home in need to make it 3-0 in the SEC with a trip to Auburn coming up next. Kentucky is coming off an ugly 82-69 loss at Georgia after hanging 106 on Florida in the conference opener. It gets two home games in a row after this against Texas A&M and Alabama, but this when the team has to get back on track.
Kentucky couldn't hit anything against Georgia - 6 for 25 from three - but when it's on, look out. When the offense is moving the ball around well and the threes are dropping, UK can score points in waves and good luck keeping up. It's not a hard equation for the Cats. they're 12-0 when scoring more than 70 points, 0-3 when they don't. They'll keep firing away, and they can also get on the move as long as they're forcing mistakes. Very efficient, very tough on the boards, and great at forcing teams to play its style, it's going to make Mississippi State run. But ...The Bulldog defense has ways of grinding games down enough to keep scores within range. Again, UK hasn't won when it hasn't hit the 70-pound mark. Only five teams have been able to get past 66 on Mississippi State and most of those were early in the season. Kentucky doesn't need to force mistakes to pull this off, but it doesn't hurt. Mississippi State doesn't turn the ball over enough to matter. On the other side, the offense is moving the ball around well, the team is shooting well because it's getting to the rim, and it's not relying on the three.Mississippi State has been incredible at slowing down teams from three. Vanderbilt only hit 19% of its tries from the outside, South Carolina only connected on 11% of its tries, and only two teams were able to connect for at least ten threes. It'll take something speial for the Wildcats to pull this off without hitting lots and lots of outside shots. The Bulldogs will have to hold on late after a quick UK flurry, but the defense will clamp down when it absolutely has to
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