With its fifth-straight SEC Eastern Division title assured, ninth-ranked Kentucky (21-4, 11-3 SEC) travels to Columbia, S.C., for its final regular-season road game against South Carolina (21-7, 8-6 SEC).
Winners of four-straight games, the Wildcats linched their 10th SEC East crown in 13 seasons with a 70-64 road win over LSU last Sunday. Gerald Fitch came off the bench to score a game-high 23 points on 5-of-8 shooting from long range to lead Kentucky.
Both Kentucky and South Carolina appear headed to NCAA Tournament play later this month. By virtue of their division title, the Wildcats have already locked up the East No. 1 seed in next week?s SEC Tournament in Atlanta. The Gamecocks are tied with Florida for second in the Eastern Division, one game up on fourth-place Vanderbilt.
The South Carolina Gamecocks
A much-improved South Carolina squad is currently battling Florida for the second spot in the SEC East and the accompanying bye in the league tournament. After starting conference play with a 5-1 record, the Gamecocks have gone 3-5 since. South Carolina is 14-2 in home games, with its only losses coming to Florida and Mississippi State.
Carlos Powell leads USC with 12.6 ppg and 6.3 rpg, while Josh Gonner is the only other player in double figures with 11.8 ppg. Mike Boynton dishes out 3.7 assists per game to lead the Gamecocks.
USC lost senior center Rolando Howell (9.0 ppg, 5.4 rpg) for the remainder of the season when he suffered a fractured wrist in Saturday?s win over Georgia.
Dave Odom is in his third season at South Carolina and holds a 55-39 record at USC. In his 18th year as a head coach, Odom is 342-212.
Series History
This marks the 38th meeting between the two teams with UK holding a 32-5 overall advantage. Kentucky has won 15 of the last 16 meetings, dating back to the 1997 season. UK had owned a 12-game win streak against the Gamecocks before USC defeated the Cats in the quarterfinals of the 2002 SEC Tournament.
The game is the 29th in the series since South Carolina joined the conference in 1992. UK owns a 24-4 record against the Gamecocks since that time.
UK is 12-3 all-time against USC in Columbia.
Dave Odom is in his third season at the helm of the Carolina program, but coached against UK twice while at Wake Forest. Overall, he?s 1-7 against the Cats, including a 1-5 record at USC. Previously at Wake, he suffered losses to UK in the 1993 NCAA Southeast Region semifinals, 103-69, and in the 1996 Midwest Region finals, 83-63.
Tubby Smith, a former Gamecock assistant coach (1986-89), is 18-3 against South Carolina and has lost only one game to the Gamecocks while at UK, a 70-57 defeat in the 2002 SEC Tournament. He?s 15-1 against USC while at Kentucky.
Championship Charm
With Sunday?s win over LSU, UK won the SEC Eastern Division crown. In seven seasons in the Bluegrass, Tubby Smith has recorded some type of conference crown – an SEC and/or Eastern Division title or SEC Tournament title – each year.
Smith has coached the Wildcats to four SEC regular-season titles, four SEC Tournament Championships and six Eastern Division crowns in seven years.
Kentucky has won 10 of the 13 SEC East titles since the league expanded in 1991-92.
UK-USC Connections
UK assistant Scott Rigot served as a graduate assistant (1986-87) and assistant coach (1987-90) at South Carolina. It was there Tubby Smith met Rigot while both served as assistants on George Felton?s staff.
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