Tuesday night in CBB we will see the top ranked Kentucky Wildcats travel to Starkville to take on the Mississippi State Bulldogs as a part of ESPN's Super Tuesday. The game is scheduled for a 9:00 pm tipoff and will be televised live on ESPN. Currently Kentucky is favored by 9 points with the total being set at 138.5 for the game.
Free Analysis: Sporting the nation's longest win streak, the top-ranked Kentucky Wildcats are closing in on an SEC regular-season title and hope to gain at least a share of the conference crown this evening, as they take on the Mississippi State Bulldogs in a conference action at the Humphrey Coliseum. John Calipari's Wildcats have won 18 consecutive games. Kentucky's lone loss came on the road at Indiana, falling to the Hoosiers by one point on December 10th (73-72). The Wildcats are 12-0 in SEC play, their best start in- conference since 2003. They sit three games ahead of second-place Florida with four games left on the docket. Despite being one of the youngest teams in the country the Wildcats have been excelling at both ends of the court. Kentucky leads the nation in scoring margin (+19.7) and field-goal percentage defense (.362), while ranking 10th in scoring defense (58.0 ppg) and 22nd in scoring (77.8 ppg). They are lead by freshmen Phenom Anthony Davis, who has dominated in the low post leading the nation in blocked shots (4.9 bpg), ranking second in field- goal percentage (.655) and averaging a near double-double with team-highs of 13.9 points and 9.7 rebounds per game. In their win vs ole miss over the weekend Davis finished with a modest 10 points, six rebounds and four blocks. Scoring depth on the roster continues with Doron Lamb (13.8 ppg), Terrence Jones (12.3 ppg) and Michael Kidd- Gilchrist (12.0 ppg). Other solid contributors include Darius Miller (9.9 ppg) and Marquis Teague (9.6 ppg, 4.8 apg).Rick Stanbury's Bulldogs will attempt to bring a halt to Kentucky's momentum, but will be fighting an uphill battle. Mississippi State is in the midst of a season-high three game losing streak. The team has dropped overtime affairs to both Georgia (70-68) and LSU (69-67), followed by this past weekend's 65-55 setback at Auburn.The Bulldogs have some llittle injuries starting to pile up. The team was without forward Renardo Sidney (10.4 ppg, 5.2 rpg) last time out due to a back injury and could see frontcourt monster Arnett Moultrie (16.5 ppg, 10.8 rpg) limited with a recent shoulder injury. Moultrie will be needed at 100-percent tonight, especially in the light of Kentucky's dominance with Davis down low. Moultrie, a transfer from UTEP, leads the SEC with 10.8 rebounds per game and 15 double-doubles, and his 16.5 scoring average ranks fourth in the league. A great deal is required of point guard Dee Bost and he has delivered for the most part this season, as both a scorer (15.8 ppg) and distributor (5.0 apg). Rodney Hood (11.1 ppg) and Jalen Steele (7.8 ppg) give the team two more options along the perimeter. The trio have combined for 152 of the team's 189 three-pointers to date. The Bulldogs rank 76th in scoring (72.5 ppg), while they rank 168th in scoring defense (66.6 ppg). Kentucky holds an 87-20 lead in the all-time series and have won nine of the last 11 meetings. The Wildcats are an impressive 31-12 in games played in Starkville.
Free Pick: Ok this is just too high a number even for the powerful Cats to cove here. MSU is no slouch, especially at home where they have gone 15-2 on the year, including 5-1 in SEC home games. The Cats have won all 6 of their SEC road games and are 4-2 ATS in those games, but they can struggle away winning by just 6 at Vanderbilt and 3 at Tennessee, while being in a dogfight vs both Georgia and Auburn before pulling away late. With the Exception of maybe Vanderbilt, the Bulldogs are much better than the other teams listed. Very hard for a team to go through the season undefeated and while I do not expect an outright win by the Bulldogs here, I feel that on National Tv they will have a very good game and keep this one close. Cats by no more than 6 here.
Free Picks: Kentucky at Mississippi State Betting
http://PregameVideos.com - Kentucky going for undefeated conference season and Step up game for Mississippi State after 3 losses plus other factors CBB bettors need to know about Kentucky at Mississippi State (Tuesday, Tuesday, February 21, 2012) from Pregame.com - Including predictions from Bryan Leonard and analysis from host Marco D'Angelo.