Big Blue Preview: Kentucky vs. LSU (SEC Tournament)
Kentucky plays in the first game of the 2026 Southeastern Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament on Wednesday, facing LSU in the first round of the event.
With that, the Cats will face an early tip time (12:30 p.m. ET, but 11:30 a.m. in Nashville), so there will be some adjustments. On Tuesday, UK head coach Mark Pope talked about how he is preparing his team for the early tip.
“We’ve recreated the schedule,” Pope said. “We had film at the same time we’ll have film tomorrow, we’ll start practice at exactly the same time we tip off tomorrow. We did pregame, just to kind of keep that whole routine the same, just to do the most we can to get the guys’ clocks adjusted.”
Kentucky will face LSU in Wednesday’s first round. The Cats and the Tigers played a classic game on January 14 in Baton Rouge. UK trailed by 18 points early in the second half, then rallied to take the lead late. However, Kentucky coughed up that lead, only to see freshman Malachi Moreno hit a shot at the buzzer to win the game 75-74.
In that game, LSU got out to a big lead early (18-3) as Kentucky experienced one of several slow starts this season. Pope knows that his Cats cannot do that in the postseason.
“It’s been a goal of ours the entire season with some success and some not so much success,” Pope said. “I think our guys understand what a priority, especially in tournament play, that we have the highest level of intensity, especially on the defensive end. I think that will be important in the game tomorrow.
Pope likes the format of the SEC Tournament, especially getting immediate gratification after a win.
“It’s a beautiful thing that if you earn your right to play 24 hours later, you get to do it,” Pope said. “And then if you earn that right again, you get to do it. Just the beauty of the immediate feedback every single day.”
Pope and the Cats are hoping for a scenario that sees them play five games in five days. But it’s one game at a time and it starts with LSU on Wednesday.
Kentucky in the SEC Tournament
Kentucky has won 31 SEC Tournament titles all-time, 23 more than Alabama, who has the second most with eight. The Wildcats last SEC Tournament championship came in 2018 when UK defeated Tennessee in the title game. Kentucky is 136-31 all-time in the SEC Tournament.
Kentucky is 15-2 all-time in the opening round of the SEC Tournament and is 16-2 all-time against LSU in the event. The teams have never met in either the first or second rounds of the tournament.
• Cliff Hagan played in eight career games for the Cats in the SEC Tournament and owns the most points ever scored with 166 by a UK player
• Twenty-five players have amassed 100 or more points in the SEC Tournament for the Cats in the history of the event
• Hagan and Melvin Turpin own the single-game scoring record for UK with 42 points scored. Hagan’s game came in 1952 against Tennessee, while Turpin’s was in 1984 vs. Georgia
• Otega Oweh’s 27 points against Oklahoma a season ago\ ranks as tied for the 15th-most in SEC Tournament history for UK
• Kentucky has had 19 most valuable players of the event. Travis Ford is the only two-time winner (1993, 1994)
Know Your Opponent: LSU
Kentucky will open SEC Tournament action against LSU on Wednesday.
• Kentucky leads the all-time series, 94-29, and is 1-0 when the game is played in Nashville. UK is 16-2 all-time against the Tigers in the SEC Tournament
• UK erased a 16-point halftime deficit and downed LSU on a buzzer beater by Malachi Moreno in the lone matchup this season
• Otega Oweh led all scorers with 21 points. Denzel Aberdeen had 17 — all coming in the second half
• Moreno had 10 points, a game-high eight rebounds, two steals and a blocked shot in the win
• The Tigers finished the regular season with a 15-16 overall record and a 3-15 mark in league action
• Max Mackinnon leads the way with 15.3 points per game and 65 3-pointers on the season
• Marquel Sutton is logging 13.2 points per game and a team-high 7.4 rebounds per game
