Kentucky vs. Wofford start time, TV info & announcers set

After a 79-44 victory over the Abilene Christian Wildcats Thursday night the Kentucky Wildcats will continue their quest for a ninth national championship when they take on the Wofford Terriers on Saturday.

The game is slated to tip off at 2:40 pm EST on Saturday, March 23rd. It will be broadcasted on CBS with Ian Eagle, Jim Spanarkel and Jamie Erdahl on the call.

The early spread has Kentucky favored by five, which is smaller than most 2 vs. 7 matchups in the Big Dance, but with PJ Washington likely out, the level of separation between these two is much tighter.

Kentucky was able to reach the second round thanks to a dominating first-round victory over ACU, despite Washington being out. The Cats took a 39-13 lead into the half. By holding the Wildcats from Texas to only 13 points, Kentucky set a school record for the least amount of points allowed in a half of an NCAA Tournament game.

Keldon Johnson led the way with 25 points after shooting 10-16 from the field. Tyler Herro and Reid Travis also had big performances. Herro dropped 14 points and grabbed five rebounds while Travis scored 18 points and just missed a double-double as he finished with nine rebounds.

As for Wofford, they are in the Round of 32 after a hard-fought win over Seton Hall, who actually beat Kentucky earlier this season. A lot of UK fans were hoping for a chance at revenge on the Pirates, but alas, the Cats get to face a very dangerous Terriers team.

Seton Hall actually led by one late in the game, but the Terriers got red hot, hitting six-straight shots at one point, five of which were threes, and ended up going on a 17-2 run before ultimately winning 84-68. They’re one of the best shooting teams in America, and they’ll be a major test for a Kentucky defense that has been up and down this season in terms of defending the arc.

The Terriers came into the Big Dance as the hottest team in the nation, having won their last 20 games in a row, and 13 of those wins were by double-digits. They did lose all four games to Power 6 teams, but they were blown out in just one of those games. That was against Kansas, 72-47 when the Jayhawks were still healthy and playing like a top-five team.

Wofford entered the tournament ranked 20th in the nation by KenPom but faced the 119th ranked schedule.

Speaking of KenPom, they project Kentucky to be a 4.5-point favorite and give Kentucky a 67% chance of winning.

Senior guard Fletcher Magee broke the NCAA career record for three-pointers made in this game, as he finished with 24 points on 7/14 shooting. He’s averaging 21 points per game and hits 42.8% from deep. He’s one of the best guards in college basketball, and Ashton Hagans will need to be on point defensively to even contain Magee.

Assuming PJ Washington is out, Kentucky will need to bring its A game to beat the hot-shooting Terriers and advance to the Sweet 16.

This will be the first ever meeting between Kentucky and Wofford.