Kentucky Completes Third Sweep of Vols in Calipari Era
For just the third time in the John Calipari Era, the Kentucky Wildcats swept the Tennessee Volunteers in the regular season.
This criterion is only satisfied by winning multiple matchups against the Vols in a single season, therefore the single wins in 2014 and 2015 do not count as a sweep. Prior to that two-year stretch, Tennessee and Kentucky played twice annually dating back to 1944. Following Saturday afternoon’s victory, Coach Cal is 18-12 against the Vols during his time in Lexington. Let’s take a look back at those three sweeps.
2010-11
After splitting the season series and dominating Tennessee in the 2010 SEC Tournament, Calipari and Co. accomplished their first sweep of the Volunteers during his second season in Lexington.
The first matchup this season took place on February 8, 2011, at Rupp Arena. DeAndre Liggins led all scorers with 19 points in 37 minutes of action. Josh Harrellson finished with 16 points and six rebounds, and Terrence Jones notched a 10-point, 11-rebound double-double. Tennessee’s Melvin Goins led the Vols in scoring with 16 points as Tennessee fell 73-61 to No. 18 Kentucky.
A month later Brandon Knight was the star of the show at Thompson-Boling Arena. He made 3-of-7 three-pointers to score 19 points for the Cats. Terrence Jones had himself yet another double-double, scoring 15 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. Future NBA utility player Tobias Harris led Tennessee in scoring with 18 points and was just one of two Vols in double-figures. Once again the unranked Vols were no match for the #20-ranked Cats, falling 64-58 at home.
The 2010-11 Tennessee squad would squeak their way into the 2011 NCAA Tournament as a nine-seed before getting blown out by 30 in the Round of 64 by eight-seeded Michigan. After knocking off Florida in the SEC Championship for the automatic bid, Kentucky earned a four seed in the Big Dance. The Cats narrowly escaped Princeton in the Round of 64 (Thank you, Brandon Knight) and got some sweet, sweet revenge on Bob Huggins’ West Virginia Mountaineers in the Round of 32. Kentucky upset #1 Ohio State in the Sweet 16 (Thank you again, Brandon Knight), then punched a ticket to the Final Four with a win over North Carolina.
Following the 2011 season Tennessee head coach Bruce Pearl was canned for lying to NCAA investigators over recruiting violations. Upon his return to the college basketball world four seasons later at Auburn (2014-15), he was immediately swept by the Cats.
2011-12
Back-to-back. Yes, two of the three sweeps of the Vols under Calipari happened in a two-year time span that occurred 11 seasons ago. To be fair, the coaching improved vastly following the 2014-15 season, which saw Kentucky win seven of the previous eight matchups against Tennessee.
The hiring of Cuonzo Martin failed to change Tennessee’s fortune against the Cats, although the first matchup was promising. Second-ranked Kentucky marched into Thompson-Boling Arena on January 14, 2012, and left with a narrow 65-62 victory over the unranked Vols. The 1-2 punch of Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist shined for the Cats, combining for 35 of the team’s 65 points and 20 of the team’s 35 rebounds.
It was a much different story when the teams returned to Rupp Arena two weeks later. The top-ranked Wildcats ran the Vols out of the gym this time. Kentucky won 69-44 behind stellar performances from the future first and second-overall picks of the 2012 NBA Draft (Davis finished with 18 points and eight rebounds, MKG with 16 and eight). Martin lasted just two more seasons before being replaced by Donnie Tyndall during the 2014-15 season and ultimately Rick Barnes in 2015-16.
Tennessee failed to make the NCAA Tournament and was ousted in the second round of the NIT by… *checks notes*… Middle Tennessee. Did they hang a banner for that? Kentucky entered the 2012 NCAA Tournament as a one seed and blazed through #16 Western Kentucky, #8 Iowa State, #4 Indiana, #3 Baylor, and #2 Kansas in the National Championship Game for their eighth National Championship.
2022-23
That brings us to this season of many ups and many downs. A rollercoaster of a season if you will.
After coming off a brutal 78-52 loss at Alabama and a devastating 71-68 home loss to South Carolina, hopes were extremely low as the unranked Wildcats traveled to face the #5 ranked Volunteers in Knoxville on January 14, 2023. In a season-changing turn of events, Antonio Reeves‘ 18 points and reigning National Player of the Year Oscar Tshiebwe‘s 15 points and 13 rebounds led the Cats to a 63-56 upset of the Vols. Uros Plavsic’s 19 points and six flops weren’t enough to hold Kentucky off inside Thompson-Boling.
Fast forward to Saturday and the Wildcats needed a huge win to get off the bubble. They got that huge win. Stellar defense and stellar guard play by Cason Wallace (16 points, six assists) led to yet another upset of the now 10th-ranked Vols 66-54 inside Rupp Arena. Oscar Tshiebwe finally got the better of Plavsic, holding the big man to just two points and three rebounds. And that guy had the audacity to call Oscar his son…
Let’s hope this season’s sweep is just the beginning of infinite sweeps over the Vols for the rest of our existence (however long that may be).
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