Tennessee basketball is about to meet Kentucky for the third time this season.

This time, the Vols and Wildcats meet with an Elite Eight berth on the line.

To preview the game, I spoke with Justin Rowland of CatsIllustrated to get his perspective on the matchup. Here's what he said.

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I know people always say it's hard to beat a team three times in a season, but the numbers suggest the team that's 2-0 typically fares better in the third game than the team that's 0-2. When you're talking about two teams that are more closely matched like Kentucky and Tennessee this year, the saying makes more sense.

I'm sure the Volunteers will have plenty of motivation to put the last two behind them, but the two previous meetings are more good than bad for Kentucky. Motivation will not be an issue in a Sweet 16 game for either team, and it's a good thing for UK that the earlier matchups worked out in their favor head to head.

They cruised in the first round by 20 and then handled Illinois, leading that game pretty much the entire way, so yes, you could say they're playing some of their best ball. Jaxson Robinson is out but we've known that for a long time. Lamont Butler had been less than 100% but he played well against Illinois so that's a good sign, too.

Amari Williams hasn't been responsible for quite as much of the offense as he was earlier in the year but Koby Brea has become a more ball-dominant guard and he looks very comfortable creating looks for himself.

The big thing is the defensive improvement. They've been much better on the defensive end, for the most part, since the last time these teams met. The rotations and communication against Illinois were very good.

Ansley Almonor, a role player off the bench, averaged 12.5 points in UK's two earlier wins against Tennessee. He's a very efficient player who knows his role and plays it well. It would help them a lot if he can give that. One of the bellwethers I look for with Kentucky is the quality of play they get from their bench. Guys like Almonor, Brandon Garrison, Collin Chandler ... they've had some really great moments, but in games where they've struggled, the bench hasn't matched up well with the other team. Pope plays a lot of guys and subs quite a bit, so he'll need that juice off the bench.

I really had no clue what to expect before the season because it's a completely new roster. For him to take a team with zero returning players or production and get to the second weekend, when Kentucky hadn't been there since 2016, is certainly impressive. At the very least, it makes you feel like Pope really knows what he's doing when he pursues players and puts the roster puzzle together. He's high IQ and really gets modern offense. It will be interesting to see what it's like next year when he's got multi-year players and more new faces sprinkled in. When Pope was hired, he wasn't nearly as well-known as the other guys linked to the job, but at this point there's a lot of optimism about where the program's headed.

Of course I could see the game going either way. Tennessee is really good. I do think there is something to the matchup being somewhat favorable to Kentucky with how they're able to spread you out and create high percentage looks. Tennessee needs to have a good offensive game because I do believe UK is better built to execute against that defense than a lot of other teams the Vols have faced. I'll pick Kentucky to win a close one, but again, no result would surprise me.

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