One of the best rivalries in college basketball gets another chapter on Saturday, as the Kentucky Wildcats visit the Louisville Cardinals on ESPN. The Wildcats enter this came as a complete mess, as they are 1-5 SU and 2-4 ATS and on a five-game losing streak, the longest under head coach John Calipari. It might not get any better against a Louisville team that would like nothing better than to kick the Wildcats while they are down. Let’s look at the game between the Wildcats and Cardinals and college basketball picks.
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Kentucky Wildcats
There are major problems with the Kentucky basketball team right now. It is so bad that head coach John Calipari had to ask freshman Cam'Ron Fletcher to "step away" from the team.
Calipari has had to put his foot down and said that the culture "will not change." The Wildcats are coming off a 75-63 loss to North Carolina and that meant the first 1-5 start for Kentucky since 1927 and the first five-game losing streak under Calipari. There is a lot of pressure for Calipari to get things turned around but he has a long rope at Kentucky. He won a national title for the Wildcats in 2012 and Kentucky made the Final Four from 2011 to 2015.
Kentucky is scoring just 65.8 points per game and giving up 67.3 points per contest. Brandon Boston Jr. leads the team in scoring at 14.5 points per contest.
Louisville Cardinals
The Cardinals got leading scorer Carlik Jones back on Tuesday against Pittsburgh. He missed the game against Wisconsin due to COVID-19 issues. Louisville had some problems because of a long layoff before the loss to Wisconsin and they needed Tuesday’s game against Pittsburgh to get back into form. Jones is the leader of the Cardinals and he was averaging 17.3 points and 7 rebounds per game before the game against Pittsburgh. "He helps in a lot of ways," head coach Chris Mack said to the media.
Series Note
Kentucky has been excellent in this series under Calipari, as they have gone 11-2 in the last 13 meetings. The Wildcats are 37-16 all-time against the Cardinals and they have won the last three meetings. Kentucky is also 13-9 against the Cardinals at Louisville. The Wildcats won 78-70 in overtime at Rupp Arena last season.
Free College Basketball ATS Picks
There is no doubt that the Cardinals are going to be listed as home favorites in this contest. Kentucky has struggled mightily all season and the sky seems to be falling for the Wildcats. The public will probably be all over Louisville in this contest on Saturday and that gives us a lot of value on Kentucky. The perfect time for the Wildcats to turn their season around is on Saturday against their rival. Calipari has laid down the law for this team and now it is time for all of the players to get on board and for Kentucky to start turning the corner. The Wildcats still have a lot of talent and there is plenty of time for them to turn things around this season. I expect a big effort from the Wildcats on Saturday in this nationally televised game. I will take the Wildcats plus the points in a game I think they can win outright.
College Basketball Odds: Kentucky 72, Louisville 66
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