Tennessee vs Kentucky Prediction, Odds & Best Bet for January 14 (Volunteers' Defense Ices Out Wildcats)

Tennessee vs Kentucky Prediction, Odds & Best Bet for January 14 (Volunteers' Defense Ices Out Wildcats)

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Tennessee vs Kentucky Game Info

  • 2022-23 NCAA Basketball Regular Season Game
  • No. 5 Tennessee (14-2, 4-0 SEC) vs. Kentucky (10-6, 1-3 SEC)
  • Date: Saturday, January 14, 2023
  • Time: 12:00 PM ET
  • Venue: Thompson-Boling Arena -- Knoxville, Tennessee

Saturday, Jan. 14's NCAA college basketball schedule includes a huge SEC showdown between the No. 5 Tennessee Volunteers and Kentucky Wildcats.

No school has been able to slow Tennessee down lately. The Volunteers most recently defeated Vanderbilt 77-68 on Tuesday, marking their 13th win in their last 14 tries. Meanwhile, Kentucky has now lost back-to-back games for the first time this season, falling 71-68 to South Carolina just a few nights ago.

Can Tennessee extend its winning ways at home? Or will Kentucky upset its SEC rivals to get back on track?

Tennessee vs Kentucky Odds & Spread

Tennessee enters this contest as the clear favorite on the moneyline and spread per FanDuel Sportsbook's odds. This 12 p.m. ET clash also features an over/under of 130.5 points with the over being favored at -115 odds.

Tennessee vs Kentucky Betting Trends

  • Against the spread, Tennessee is 9-7-0 this season.
  • The Volunteers have an ATS record of 6-3 as 12.5-point favorites or greater.
  • There have been six Tennessee's games (out of 16) that went over the total this year.
  • Kentucky has five wins in 16 games against the spread this season.
  • This year, nine of Kentucky's 16 games have gone over the point total.
Tennessee Rank Tennessee AVG Kentucky AVG Kentucky Rank
104th 75.5 Points Scored 76.3 86th
2nd 53.4 Points Allowed 67.5 134th
4th 38.1 Rebounds 36.6 22nd
3rd 12.9 Off. Rebounds 12.7 4th
99th 8.2 3pt Made 7.5 177th
9th 18.1 Assists 16.6 22nd
255th 13.1 Turnovers 11.1 62nd

Tennessee vs Kentucky Prediction & Pick

A lot of Tennessee's success this season stems from having one of the best defenses in the nation. The Volunteers only surrender 53.4 PPG (No. 2) on 33.5% shooting (No. 1), also averaging 40.7 rebounds (No. 5) and 10.2 steals (T-No. 5) per game.

Kentucky's offense isn't good enough to get past that defensive fortress. The Wildcats have been held to a 60.0 PPG clip over their last two losses, shooting just 38.5% from the floor and 26.7% from three-point range in those games. They also haven't been able to keep things close on the road, where they have a minus-11.8 scoring margin.

That's even to mention how Tennessee has won six of the last nine meetings between these SEC rivals, outscoring Kentucky by at least seven points in all but one of those victories. At the end of the day, there's just no reason to doubt the Volunteers this afternoon.

Final Score Prediction: Tennessee: 78 | Kentucky: 63

Tennessee vs Kentucky Best Bet

When it comes to the spread, Kentucky has been brutal. Not only have the Wildcats failed to cover the spread in each of their last 10 games, but they're also 0-6 ATS in their last six SEC matchups and 3-6 ATS in their last nine clashes with the Volunteers.

On the other hand, Tennessee is 6-2 ATS at Thompson-Boling Arena this season and has covered the spread in five of its last seven January matchups. With Tennessee's defense being one of the best in college basketball, I see the Volunteers covering the spread today.

Bet: Tennessee -12.5 (-105)

Devon Platana is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Devon Platana also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username PepeSilvia0. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.