UAB at Kentucky

The winner of this game gets the dubious honor of losing to UCONN in next week's game. A lot ot play for, eh? Most 8-9 seeded teams will look into the weekend and see that they must face a top ranked team next, then worry about that match up before they take care of round one. While I am very confident it won't happen to tourney-test Tubby Smith and his Wildcats, there is an outside chance that Mike Anderson will let it happen. Kentucky has out-rebounded and out-shot their opponents this season; surely two keys to victory. That being said, UAB is quite a small team and have struggled getting rebounds all season (something Kentucky will take advantage of). Look for rebounds and turnovers to cause fast break opportunities for Kentucky and they do what they do best in the "big dance"...win.  The game won't get too out of hand though, as Kentucky will also play wonderful defense and give the outside shooters lots of trouble. In the end when you control the boards, fast break for easy baskets and get second or third looks at the basket, the scoreboard will show you with more points as the game ends. The Cats are 8-2 ATS this season vs. winning teams and I see them handling UAB here. Lay the points on Kentucky in this game for three stars.