Kentucky Wildcats at Vanderbilt Commodores Betting Odds

Opening Line: Kentucky +1 / Vanderbilt -1 O/U 155

Time: 6 PM EST Saturday February 20, 2010 on ESPN

On Saturday night in a Big SEC match up the 19th ranked Vanderbilt Commodores host the 2nd ranked Kentucky Wildcats. Kentucky is in 1st place in the SEC, but they only lead Vanderbilt by a single game in the conference. The Wildcats are on pace to get a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament, but if they lose this game and do not win the SEC they may not get it. Vanderbilt can really improve their Big Dance positioning if they can win this game.

This season Vanderbilt is 13-0 at home and 13-10 ATS and Kentucky is 5-1 on the road and 12-11 ATS.

In their last games Kentucky beat Mississippi State 81-75 in OT on Tuesday while Vanderbilt beat Mississippi 82-78 on Thursday.

These teams have pretty even stats, but Kentucky has the slight edge, as they have averaged around 3 more points per game and have given up around 3 fewer points per game.

Vanderbilt has yet to lose at home this season and they are on a 3-game winning streak.

Vanderbilt has a solid backcourt with 2 guards and one G/F averaging in double figures and C A.J. Ogilvy (13.9 ppg). Leading scorer Jermaine Beal (14.7 ppg) has to shoot the rock well tonight for Vandy to win this game.

The Wildcats are a very athletic team that likes to get out and run and Vandy has to try to slow them down and make this a half court game.

Kentucky has a couple of player of the year candidates in G John Wall (17 ppg) and F DeMarcus Cousins (16 ppg 10.3 ppg). If these guys play well it will be hard for the Commodores to pull off a win.

Vandy's A.J. Ogilvy (6.1 rpg) and F Andre Walker (5.4 rpg) have to hit the boards hard in this game and now allow the Wildcats to have 2nd chance opportunities on the offensive end of the court.

Kentucky is 6-2 ATS in their last 8 road games, 1-5 ATS in their last 6 games following a ATS win, and has an Over record of 12-5 in their last 17 games.

Vanderbilt is 7-2 ATS in their last 9 games vs. a team with a winning percentage above 60%, 0-4 ATS in their last 4 Saturday games, and has an Over record of 5-0 in their last 5 home games.

In the last 5 games between these 2 teams the underdog is 4-1 ATS and in the last 5 games at Vanderbilt the total has gone Over 4 times.

Our Selection : The Wildcats have lost only 1 game this season,so we're not going to play against them here. Instead we're going to make a play on the total. S. Carolina slowed the game down to beat Kentucky and we think Vanderbilt will try tto do the same. Vandy only allowing 66.2 points at home this season Take the under 153