Kentucky vs. Vandy preview

Thursday night in front of Bob Knight and all his bitterness, Kentucky opens the SEC portion of their schedule against Vanderbilt. Now, it's no secret that Vanderbilt is probably my least favorite team in the SEC.  My reason for the hatred I have for this team are many, but I'll list just a few...

1.) Kevin Stallings (the reasons for this are apparent)

2.) Their fans (they have an undeserved and unearned sense of entitlement)

3.) John Jenkins (again, should be obvious)

4.) Digger Phelps (his little pathetic rant during college game day)

5.) Festus Ezeli (the name alone is enough)

6.) Jeffery Taylor (the way his mouth looks)

7.) Their gymnasium (also obvious)

8.) Their student section ( have you seen their student section?)

9.) Their mascot (have you looked at that thing roaming the sidelines?)

10.) and finally Kevin Stallings (he's so absurd he deserves two spots)

Now that that's out of the way, let's discuss Vandy. They are having less than a desirable year so far. Just twelve games in, and already they are sitting at 6-6. Their losses are a who's who of WHO. They are the proud owners of losses to Oregon, Davidson, Marist, Villanova, Middle Tennessee State,  and Butler. Sure there are some quality teams sprinkled in there, but how do you lose to Marist, Davidson, and MTS? No, this isn't last years team that beat Kentucky in the SEC Championship game, then as usual was a complete bust in the tourney, but come on. No way they should lose to Marist at home.  Anyway, here's a numbers comparison for Vandy..

         VU                UK

PPG  60                 79

RPG  32                 40

APG  11                 16

SPG    6                    8 

BPG    4                    8

TPG  13                  13

FG% .420              .492

FT% .579              .642

3P% .355               .372

Going into this game no doubt Kentucky will be favored to win, but over the years Kentucky fans have learned one thing. Nothing comes easy inside the cold walls of Memorial Gymnasium. Of all the places Kentucky plays, this is the one I dread every single year. Over the years, Kentucky holds a stellar 136-45 record over the 'Dores, but have a 42-26 record inside Memorial. I've seen some of the best Kentucky teams go in there and struggle. So this will be no easy test for this young Kentucky team.  I'll just be glad that we won't have to worry about this little road trip anymore this season. 

I usually give a score prediction, but with this being inside Memorial, I'll take a one point win and feel good about it.