Tonight’s nationally televised late game on ESPN sees the Kentucky Wildcats traveling to South Carolina to face the Clemson Tigers. The Wildcats are the No. 4 ranked team in the most recent NCAA basketball AP poll. Clemson is not ranked, but the team did pick up a few points (25) in the most recent poll.
Kentucky, who are in first place in the SEC, bring a perfect 7-0 record into tonight’s road game. Meanwhile, Clemson sports a 7-1 record. The Tigers are the No. 1 team in the ACC.
The Wildcats are coming off a 105-76 win over Georgia State, while Clemson defeated Florida A&M 86-58 in their most recent outing.
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Straight up, the Kentucky Wildcats are 7-0 straight up this season and 4-3 against the spread. Their only game away from home was at a neutral site this year, and they beat the spread in that matchup. The Wildcats are also 6-0 straight up in their six most recent games against an ACC opponent. The team is 5-1 against the spread in its last six road games dating back to last season. Meanwhile, the over has hit in five of the team’s seven matchups this season. Kentucky is 6-0 as the betting favorite this year and 1-0 as the betting underdog. Tuesday’s game marks the Wildcats’ first official away game of the year, as they have six home games and one neutral site matchup.
As for the Clemson Tigers, they are 7-1 straight up on the year and 4-4 against the spread. Clemson is a perfect 5-0 straight up at home this season. The Tigers are 2-3 against the spread at home this year. They have hit the over in three of their five games at Littlejohn Coliseum. As for games against a foe from the SEC, the total has gone under in 16 of Clemson’s last 20 outings.
These teams have not played since 1997, but the overall record favors the Wildcats 12-4. The Wildcats were picked to finish 8th in the SEC preseason poll. Meanwhile, the Tigers were picked to finish 4th in the ACC this season.
The Wildcats are the top team in the nation in points per game, averaging 96.7 per outing, which puts them nearly four points ahead of the No. 2 squad, Samford. The team’s scoring is incredibly balanced, as no Kentucky player is ranked in the top 150 in scoring. The team’s leading scorer is Otega Oweh, who is tied for 198th in scoring overall. He ranks 13th in the SEC with 15.9 points per game. The Wildcats have six players who average 10 or more points per game.
In their last outing, Kentucky had a fantastic game against Georgia State, scoring 105 points with an overall shooting percentage of 59.7 percent while hitting 62 points in the paint. The team did well on defense in that game, scoring 36 points on turnovers.
The Tigers played very well against Florida A&M, shooting 50 percent from the floor and dominated on the boards with a +14 rebound margin in the win. The team is without four of its five starters from last year, but its top players are experienced, as they are all juniors and seniors.
Chase Hunter leads the Tigers in scoring with 16.4 points per game. Other than Hunter, the Tigers only have two other players registering more than 10 points per game in Ian Schieffelin and Viktor Lakhin.
Look for a tight game between Kentucky and Clemson, but the offensive firepower of the Wildcats will carry the day against the defense of the Tigers. With that, the betting pick is for Kentucky to get the win over Clemson.
As for the total, Clemson should be able to rein in some of the offense of Kentucky, so the betting pick is for the teams to combine for under 156.5 points.
