Wildcats, Vols ready for critical rematch

Kentucky coach John Calipari would love to have Reid Travis hounding players at Tennessee on Saturday, but he suspects that won’t be the case.

Travis sprained his right knee in a victory over Missouri on Feb. 19 and hasn’t played since. His defense on SEC scoring leader Grant Williams played a large role in Kentucky’s 86-69 triumph over then-No. 1 Tennessee at Rupp Arena two weeks ago.

“... This will be a hard game whether he plays or not,” Calipari said.

No. 7 Tennessee doesn’t expect any less of a test in its rematch with No. 4 Kentucky just because the Wildcats likely won’t be playing at full strength. The Volunteers lost 82-80 in overtime last week to No. 13 LSU when Javonte Smart replaced the ailing Tremont Waters and scored a career-high 29 points.

“When you lose a player or you’re down a player, someone steps up,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said. “We saw that firsthand at LSU.”

Kentucky (24-4, 13-2), Tennessee (25-3, 13-2) and LSU (23-5, 13-2) are in a three-way tie for first place in the league standings. LSU has the tiebreaker advantage in regard to SEC tournament seeding because it went 2-0 against Kentucky and Tennessee.

“The good news for us is they have as much to lose as we do,” Calipari said of Saturday’s game. “It’s always nice every once in a while — maybe three times a year — to have a game like that, where the other team has as much to lose as you do.

“We play games where the other team has nothing to lose.”

OSU suspends Wesson: Ohio State suspended leading scorer Kaleb Wesson indefinitely for violating an athletic department policy the school didn’t specify.

Ohio State didn’t say when the 6-foot-9, 270pound sophomore could return, only that he will play again this season.

Wessen is averaging 14.6 points per game for the Buckeyes (18-10, 8-9 Big Ten) and is their top rebounder with 6.7 per game average.