Kentucky Basketball Opens As 12.5 Point Favorite Against Ohio

Kentucky has opened as a 12.5 point favorite against Ohio and the over/under is set at 143.5 for their game set to tip off on Friday night at 7pm.

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So far this season Kentucky is an underwhelming 1-2 against the spread while Ohio is 3-0 against the spread.

Kentucky is averaging 83.7 PPG while Ohio is averaging 81.3 PPG (vs. Belmont, Cleveland State, and Robert Morris).

Finally, Ohio does shoot 38.3% from 3 but Kentucky is shooting 45% from the field.

Kentucky currently averages 42.7 rebounds per game while Ohio averages 35.7 rebounds per game.

One stat that does stick out to me is that Kentucky obviously has the leading rebounder in Oscar Tshiebwe (18.7 RPG) but Ohio has two guys (Carter & Vander Plas) both averaging nearly 9 boards per game individually. Kentucky’s second leading rebounder is Jacob Toppin, who is averaging 6 rebounds per game, and then Keion Brooks with 3.7 RPG.

I’m interested to see who will be the guy that can step up and be that secondary rebounder alongside Oscar as Carter and Vander Plas will be looking to add to their averages.

In my opinion this game has a chance to be close for the first half and Kentucky could possibly even be down a point at halftime.

BUT in the game on Tuesday night freshman TyTy Washington had a quiet 16 points on 7-12 shooting. TyTy is a (if not the number one) difference maker in games where Kentucky will need to score a lot of points. I believe that he is finally getting settled in and taking shots that he’s comfortable with. I also believe that Kellan Grady is settling in and will play a bigger role in tomorrow night’s game as he so far is shooting 56% from 3 and should also be growing more comfortable on what shots he needs to take and what role he will best fit in.

All of that said I think this will be an interesting challenge for Kentucky as they face off against a solid Ohio squad. I do believe that Kentucky will cover the 12.5 spread and win by 15 points.

However I think that the safest bet in this game is the OVER 143.5… I predict a final score of around 90-75 and don’t see a world where both teams don’t combine for at least 150.

What do you think? Tweet us your score predictions at @ThingsBBNLikes or @CatsCoverage_ on Twitter.