MILWAUKEE
Kentucky basketball opens NCAA Tournament play for the first time with Mark Pope as coach when the Wildcats take on Sun Belt Tournament champion Troy on Friday night at Fiserv Forum.
Kentucky is the No. 3 seed in the Midwest Regional. Troy is the No. 14 seed. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. on CBS. Kevin Harlan, Stan Van Gundy, Dan Bonner and Lauren Shehadi comprise the broadcast team.
Ben Roberts, Mark Story, Ryan Hermens and yours truly will be reporting from courtside. Cameron Drummond will be monitoring the broadcast in Lexington. You can follow Ben’s updates on Bluesky at @benrobertshl. You can follow the rest of us on X/Twitter at @markcstory, @ryanhermens, @cdrummond97 and @johnclayiv.
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Kentucky guard Lamont Butler, right, talks to reporters at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee on Thursday, ahead of Kentucky’s first NCAA Tournament game against Troy. Ryan C. Hermens [email protected]
Scouting report: Troy
Coach Scott Cross’s Troy Trojans are 23-10 after defeating Arkansas State 94-81 to win the Sun Belt Conference Tournament. The Trojans are No. 94 in KenPom’s adjusted overall efficiency rankings. They are 151st in adjusted offensive efficiency and 67th in adjusted defensive efficiency.
Troy does two things really well. They rank sixth in the nation in offensive rebound percentage at 38.6%. They are seventh in the nation in steal percentage at 13.7%.
Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year Tayton Conerway averages 14.3 points and 2.9 steals per game. He signed with Billy Gillispie and Tarleton State but ended up at Ranger Junior College, then Troy. He’s a quick 6-foot-3 senior guard.
Scouting report: Kentucky
The Wildcats are 22-11 after losing 99-70 to Alabama in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament. UK enters Friday No. 16 in KenPom’s adjusted overall efficiency rankings. The Cats are No. 9 in offensive efficiency and No. 57 in defensive efficiency.
The Wildcats rank 44th in turnover percentage at 15.2% but have not been as careful with the basketball, of late. They committed 16 turnovers which Alabama turned into 29 points in Nashville.
Lamont Butler missed that loss to the Crimson Tide because of a shoulder injury, but is expected to be back vs. Troy. UK’s leading scorer Otega Oweh received stitches in his upper lip after taking an Alabama elbow last time out. He’s good to go, as well.
