Only six days earlier, No. 1 Tennessee came to Memorial Gym and needed overtime and a controversial hook-and-hold call to defeat Vanderbilt.
But on Tuesday night, Kentucky humiliated Vanderbilt 87-52. It was the biggest margin of victory for UK here since the 1996 national champions beat the Commodores by 39 points (110-81) on Feb. 7, 1996.
Kentucky’s wary words from earlier in the week quickly faded to irrelevance. Associate coach Kenny Payne talked about a “hostile environment” and Vandy as “a team very desperate that is capable of beating us.”
Vanderbilt, which lost an eighth straight game, spoke optimistically before the game.