No. 6 Kentucky looks to stay perfect in SEC (Jan 10, 2017)
Can anyone in the Southeastern Conference stop Kentucky?
It's a question SEC fans are asking as Kentucky heads to Nashville to face Vanderbilt on Tuesday evening.
Kentucky (13-2, 3-0 SEC) is No. 6 in both major polls, but that might be underselling the Wildcats a bit. They top Ken Pomeroy's rankings as of late Monday afternoon, after demolishing their first three SEC opponents -- Ole Miss, Texas A&M and Arkansas -- by 23, 42 and 26 points, respectively.
What has made the 'Cats scary on both ends of the floor is the play of its three starting guards -- point guard De'Aron Fox, and wings Isaiah Briscoe and Malik Monk.
Monk leads the SEC in scoring at 21.9 points per game, and Briscoe and Fox have each registered triple-doubles this season.
Monk has been plagued by inconsistency at times -- he scored 16 points on 17 shots, one game removed from putting up 47 points against North Carolina -- but has averaged 24 points in the three games since while shooting 62.1 percent from the field.
Fox led the team in scoring (27) against Arkansas and paces the SEC in assists per game (6.7) by a wide margin. Briscoe, an elite on-ball defender, has significantly improved his offensive game (15.2 ppg, 50.7 percent shooting from the field).
Kentucky also has gifted interior players with forwards Bam Adebayo, who averages 13.1 points, 7.1 rebounds and 1.8 blocks, and forward Derek Willis, who scored 15 points in 19 minutes off the bench against Arkansas.
"If there's a weakness, you guys can let us know," Vanderbilt coach Bryce Drew joked this week.
But as Kentucky knows, winning in Memorial Gymnasium isn't always easy. Vanderbilt won there 74-62 last season, and the Wildcats, who are 11-point favorites, haven't beaten the Commodores by double digits in Memorial Gym in its last 10 games there.
After getting blown out at Middle Tennessee State on Dec. 8, the Commodores have played much better. Drew scrapped much of his four-out, one-in offense for one more like last year's coach, Kevin Stallings, ran, one that finds shooters and uses back cuts to loosen defenses.
"They're a terrific offensive team with 3-point shooters," Kentucky coach John Calipari said. "That's how they played, and they're running almost all of the stuff with adjustments, but it's mostly the stuff that they ran a year ago."
Vanderbilt ranks 13th in the country in 3-point shooting (40.3 percent) and has hit 40 3-pointers in its three SEC games while making 77.4 percent of its free throws, which ranks 12th nationally.
Kentucky's focus will be on guard Matthew Fisher-Davis, who averaged 27 points in the three games before Saturday's loss at Alabama, during which he scored just seven points on nine shots from the floor.
But the Wildcats will also have to worry about 7-foot-1 center Luke Kornet. The senior is one of the country's better shot-blockers. He has averaged 15.5 points in the last four games and seems to be healing from persistent knee issues.
Kentucky is more athletic and holds opponents to 29.7 percent 3-point shooting. But the Commodores have six players who have hit at least 14 3-pointers this season, and they move the ball well in their half-court offense.
