2009 SEC Tournament Preview: Kentucky vs. LSU

2009 SEC Tournament Preview. Kentucky (20-12) is showing renewed life after dropping the last four games of the season with their first round win in the 2009 SEC Tournament over Ole Miss, 71-58. The Cats will take on the Nr 20 ranked LSU Tigers (25-6) and attempt to avenge their 73-70 home loss from a few weeks ago in their bid for the 2009 SEC Tournament Championship. Wildcat fans will be hoping that shaking the loss-jinx against Ole Miss will be enough to get by the number one seeded LSU Tigers, while Tiger's fans are hoping that the two game skid to end the season is not indicative of how their post-season will play-out.

2009 SEC Tournament Preview - Kentucky

Kentuckyenters the second round of the SEC tournament in a must-win situation. After their four-game collapse to close-out the regular season, 20 wins will probably not be enough for the Wildcats to make the NCAA tournament. The Cats will need to get to at least the semi-finals to do so. In order to beat the Tigers, Kentucky is going to need Darrius Miller and Perry Stevenson to score like they did against Ole Miss in order to complement Jodi Meeks (24.7 ppg) and Patrick Patterson's (18.4ppg) 40+ points.

2009 SEC Tournament Preview - LSU

LSU has not won a game since they beat Kentucky with a last second three pointer on February 28^th. In their last meeting, LSU was able to double-down on Patrick Patterson and block a number of shots to turn into easy baskets. With Jodi Meeks not being hot, LSU was able to capitalize and take the victory. Marcus Thorton (20.9 ppg) and Tasmin Mitchell (16.4 ppg) will need to have big games against the Cats for LSU to get to the semi-finals.

2009 SEC Tournament Preview - Prediction

LSU is favored to win this game. A week ago, I would have agreed, however, based on LSU's last two games I think the Tiger's are ripe to be upset. LSU went from taking down Florida and Kentucky in back-to-back games to close out February, only to immediately throw away a Top Ten AP ranking with back -to-back losses against Vanderbilt and Auburn. My prediction, Jodi Meeks shows us why we shouldn't have quit talking about him for NCAA Player of the year considerations and the Wildcats win: 84-75.

Sources:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1556169/2009_sec_tournament_preview_mississippi.html?cat=14

http://www.collegehoopsvideo.com/3010/

http://www.collegehoopsvideo.com/lsu-tigers/

http://www.collegehoopsvideo.com/kentucky-wildcats/

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=290590096

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/clubhouse?teamId=99