The day has come for Kentucky Wildcats head coach John Calipari and his team to begin postseason play.

After playing their way through the regular season to earn a 3 seed in this week’s SEC Tournament, they were able to secure a bye into the quarterfinals.

Not only will they have the advantage of starting off tournament play against lower seed Vanderbilt Commodores, they’ll also have the rest advantage over the Dores, who will be playing a third game in as many days.

Tip-off is set to be roughly 30 minutes after Tennessee and Mississippi State, which begins at 6 pm ET.

Kentucky was able to sweep the two-game series with Vanderbilt in the regular season. Playing with a fully healthy roster both games, Kentucky started things off by beating the Dores in Nashville 78-66 on January 11th. TyTy Washington finished with a game-high 15 points.

The February 2nd rematch saw the Wildcats get big production from Keion Brooks (20 points and four rebounds) and Davion Mintz (21 points) to come away with a much more challenging 77-70 win at home.

Vanderbilt junior guard Scotty Pippen is still one of the league’s best guards, as he’s averaging 20.3 points, 4.1 assists and 3.5 boards per game.

However, the Dores got big contributions from sophomore forward Myles Stute (18 points), junior forward Jordan Wright (13 points and 11 boards), and senior guard Rodney Chapman (12 points) in Thursday’s win over Alabama, while Pippen had a game-high 26 points (15/21 free-throw shooting vs. 5/19 shooting from the field) to go with seven assists.

Also, senior big man Liam Robbins is getting a lot more run now that he’s healthy. The 7-footer could help Vanderbilt present a bigger challenge in the paint for National Player of the Year Oscar Tshiebwe.

Details on how to watch Kentucky vs. Vanderbilt are below.

Kentucky Basketball vs. Vanderbilt Commodores

• Time and Date: Friday, March 11th at approximately 8:00 pm ET
• Location: Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida
• TV Channel: SEC Network
• Announcers: Tom Hart, Dane Bradshaw and Alyssa Lang
• Online Stream: WatchESPN, ESPN+, the ESPN app, or use a free trial of fuboTV.
• Tickets
• Replay: WatchESPN, ESPN+ and the SEC Network (check local listings)
• Radio: UK Sports Network with Tom Leach and Mike Pratt
• Satellite Radio: Sirius 134 | XM 190 | SXM App 961
• Rosters: UK l VU
• Stats To Know: UK I VU
• Team Sheets: UK I VU
• Odds: Kentucky is an 11.5-point favorite, according to DraftKings Sportsbook. KenPom gives Kentucky an 83% chance of winning. Barttorvik projected the Cats to be nine-point favorites and gives them an 81% chance of winning.
• Predictions: Barttorvik projects a 75-67 win for the Wildcats, while KenPom is going with a 77-66 win for them. TeamRankings goes with a 75-65 victory, Kentucky!

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