I love Vanderbilt in this situation because they match up with Kentucky better than any other team in the SEC. Unlike Florida this team has size down low to go along with the perimeter play that should challenge a Kentucky defense that struggles at times defending the 3. Austin Davis has to match up against a Sr in Festus Ezeli who is bigger and slightly taller. That should be an interesting match up here. If Kentucky continues to play solid defense they can win this game, but 43% of Vanderbilts shots are from 3 and they are shooting 42.1% in conference play and they too play great defense in conference play 37.5%. Kentucky's offense relies on freshmen and outside of Lamb this team is extremely streaky from 3 point range. It's going to be hard for Calipari to make adjustments at Vanderbilt considering the layout of the court and I think that could be a huge advantage for Vanderbilt because Kentucky is such a young team.
Kentucky starts 3 freshmen 2 sophomore's and they really lack proven depth. While Vanderbilt starts 4 seniors and 1 junior and pound for pound they match up extremely well as I mentioned before. Vanderbilt has been in this spot before and have come out on top more often than not hosting a #1 seed of late. They beat Kentucky 5 of the last 6 at home and again I think they'll be right in this game. After all Kentucky has played in just 6 road games and are 5-1. Their only challenge came from Indiana in a 72-73 loss. Their other 5 games are vs. teams with RPI's of 137, 135, 117, 79, and 177. Vanderbilt is a real opponent at 27th and their home court advantage should be crazy tonight. It will be interesting to see how a young team plays in this big game.
