The best college basketball games, if you ask me, are when two historic programs face off.
We’ve witnessed lots of great battles over the years – Kansas-Memphis, Duke-Wisconsin and Florida-UCLA National Championship games, to name a few.
One of those historic battles is coming to Atlanta, Ga. on Saturday, Dec. 16 at 5:30 p.m. ET, as the UNC men’s basketball team faces off against Kentucky in the CBS Sports Classic.
If Purdue-Arizona, Kansas-Indiana and UConn-Gonzaga weren’t facing each other this weekend, there’s no doubt Carolina-Kentucky would be the game to watch. Both the Tar Heels and Wildcats are off to 7-2 starts, though the Tar Heels have yet to suffer an embarrassing loss at home.
UNC-Kentucky is so highly-anticipated, it was ranked college basketball correspondent Andy Katz’ fourth-ranked Game of the Week.
https://www.instagram.com/p/C0uBKOFORfz/
Carolina enters the clash off an 87-76 loss to the reigning champion UConn Huskies, who pulled away in the second half. Kentucky rebounded from its Dec. 2 home loss to UNCW, beating Penn comfortably by 15 points last Saturday.
The Tar Heels have shown significantly more of an ability to compete with tougher teams this year – beating two of the SEC’s better programs in Tennessee and Arkansas, while taking Villanova to overtime and being competitive for most of the UConn game.
Kentucky, despite being 7-2, is already remembered this year for losing to UNC-Wilmington inside Rupp Arena. The Wildcats were still competitive in that game and their other loss, to another staple college basketball program in Kansas.
Carolina will be tasked with slowing down Kentucky’s six players in double-figures, while the Wildcats will have to pick either R.J. Davis, Armando Bacot, Harrison Ingram or Cormac Ryan to slow down.
Follow us @TarHeelsWire on Twitter and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of North Carolina Tar Heels news, notes and opinions.