Kentucky Looking for 3rd Win Against Tennessee in NCAA Sweet Sixteen

By Jamie H. Vaught

KySportsStyle.com Magazine

INDIANAPOLIS – Kentucky point guard Lamont Butler plans to see a significant amount of action against the Tennessee Volunteers Friday night in an NCAA Sweet Sixteen showdown.

The No. 3 seed Wildcats, ranked No. 18 in the latest AP Top 25 poll, will need Butler, who has missed nine games this season due to an injured shoulder, on the hardwood floor if they want to advance to Sunday’s Elite Eight contest against the winner of the Houston-Purdue matchup. Butler’s playmaking and defense have given UK a nice boost in two NCAA Tournament wins, especially against Illinois on Sunday when he had 14 points along with five assists and three steals in 33 minutes.

Butler, who hit a game-winning buzzer-beater in 2023 NCAA Final Four while at San Diego State, missed UK’s 78-73 victory over the Vols in Knoxville back in January and only saw 22 minutes of action during Kentucky’s 75-64 victory two weeks later in Lexington.

(By the way, Jaxson Robinson, one of UK’s top players, is recovering from wrist surgery. In Kentucky’s first game against UT, Robinson gunned in 17 points in 35 minutes of action. He missed the second game against the Vols.)

Against the Vols, ranked No. 6 in the AP poll, Butler has a tough assignment, facing one of the nation’s top players in Tennessee All-American Zakai Zeigler.

“He's a really good player, really good point guard,” said Butler of 5-foot-9 Zeigler on Thursday. “One of the best point guards in the country. Defensive player of the year in our league and first-team (All-SEC). We know that we've got to go out there and really just play hard against him. It's going to be a great matchup for me.

“But it's a team effort, not just one person guarding somebody. We're going to be connected on defense, and we've got one of the best coaches. I think we're going to be ready to go and win that game.”

Shortly after beating Illinois, Butler was asked about playing Tennessee again.

“We're just battle tested, throughout this whole conference. Conference was a beast. We had a lot of good teams that we played, but we stayed resilient, stayed together. And it showed today," commented Butler. "Everybody was playing with love and passion for one another, and we can't focus about anything but the next game. We just have a lot of love, and we're going to win that game.”

Butler said he wore a different shoulder brace against Illinois that was less restrictive. 

Kentucky coach Mark Pope had a lot to say about Butler during Thursday’s press conference held at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Kentucky coach Mark Pope addresses the team during a morning practice on Thursday at Lucas Oil Stadium. UK faces Tennessee in NCAA Sweet Sixteen Friday night. The 7:39 pm ET game will be shown on TBS and truTV. (UK Athletics Photo)

“I've talked about Lamont a lot,” said Pope. “It's a beautiful thing as a coach, just like a beautiful thing as a parent. As a parent, when you see your children doing things better than you ever did them and being smarter than you ever were and doing things that are so brave and so bold, we all know what that feels like. That's how I feel about Lamont Butler. He's doing things that you just shouldn't have to ask a player to do.

“And he's never been dissuaded. He's never been diverted or distracted from his, like, core, which is like he wants to raise up and do this for his guys. He's doing it at insane cost right now and with unbelievable bravery and unbelievable fortitude and gratitude.

“That's why I love sports. I talk about sports, does it give us a chance to do something even more? We have to do the winning, but can you win and actually do something more than winning? And Lamont Butler, if there's a guy that's been symbolic of that on this team, you talk about a guy winning and doing more, it's Lamont Butler. He's really special.”

Six-foot-7 guard Koby Brea of Kentucky, who leads the team in three-point shooting with 43.8 percent, said the Wildcats don’t have to do anything different against the Vols after winning twice against them.

“I think we've got to do the same thing against every team, consider to be ourselves,” said Brea. “We trust each other on the court. We know what we're capable of doing.

“Tennessee is obviously a really good opponent. Gotta give them respect and we're coming into the game with the same mentality that we came into the first two.”

Brea played well against the Vols, hitting a total of 6 of 9 three-pointers in both games against one of the nation’s top defense. He was asked about the third matchup.

“They've been a really good defensive team, but I feel we've seen their defense a couple times this year, teams that do similar things,” said Brea. “So we kind of just do what we do every game and just scout them and work on the things that they're good at and how we're able to use that against them.

"I'm sure that they'll probably try to change things up a little bit since the first two times didn't work out too well. But we're going to continue to do what we do. We work on every type of defense guarding us. Just gotta continue to do us.”

On playing against UK, Tennessee coach Rick Barnes commented, “Obviously we've played Kentucky twice and they've played great against us. I think both games, made 12 3s in each game. And Mark (Pope) has done a great job. I've often said to people, it's maybe one of the most, if not the most, difficult job in the country when you talk about basketball. I just think he's done a great job coming in following a guy like John Calipari who did a lot, so much there. (I’m) just really impressed with what he's done with the entire program and the way he was able to get there and put a team together that has them playing this time of year as well.”

Added Zeigler, “We didn't play like ourselves the first two times we played. I could say, obviously they won they game, they got the best of us. Just going out there, everybody doing our jobs, being ourselves, that's going to be the main goal. If we do that, I feel like we have a pretty good chance to win the game.”

Brea said he is excited about playing against the backdrops at Lucas Oil Stadium. He is currently averaging a team-leading 18 points in two NCAA Tournament games.

“I feel like it's been pretty cool just to play in different environments; and for me, it's my first time playing in a football stadium,” said Brea. “That's a pretty good experience. I don't really think it changes anything. I always say if the ball is round and the rim is a circle, then I think it's all the same thing. Just excited to get out there and play.”

Jamie H. Vaught, a longtime sports columnist in Kentucky, is the author of six books about UK basketball, including recently-published “Forever Crazy About The Cats: An Improbable Journey of a Kentucky Sportswriter Overcoming Adversity.” Now a retired college professor who taught at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College in Middlesboro., he is the editor and founder of KySportsStyle.com Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter @KySportsStyle or reach him via email at KySportsStyle@gmail.com.