Vermont @ Kentucky preview

Fourth-ranked Kentucky hosts Vermont on Sunday and hopes to control the tempo like it did - for the second half anyway - against Utah Valley two days earlier. The Wildcats trailed by nine at halftime, shooting 20.6 percent prior to intermission, before rallying for a 73-63 victory in the season opener as their running game exploded after the break.

“I don’t think anyone can keep up with us,” Kentucky freshman forward Nick Richards told reporters. “When it’s a fast break, most of the time it’s going to be a bucket.” The Wildcats scored 18 fast-break points in the second half, prompting freshman guard Hamidou Diallo to tell reporters: “I think we’re the best team in the country if we play in transition.” Kentucky coach John Calipari used only eight players and started five freshmen including Diallo, who scored a game-high 18 points and also contributed five rebounds and three assists while shooting 8-for-16 from the field. The Catamounts are coming off a school record-setting 29-win season that ended with an 80-70 loss to Purdue in the NCAA Tournament, and they are trying to halt an 11-game losing streak versus Top 25 teams.

TV: 3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN

ABOUT VERMONT (2016-17: 29-6): Senior guard Trae Bell-Haynes, the 2016-17 America East Player of the Year, averaged 11.2 points and 3.9 assists last season. He is joined on the All-America East Preseason Team by sophomore forward Anthony Lamb (team highs of 12.8 points and 5.5 rebounds last season). “The bar has been set pretty high,” coach John Becker, who has four starters returning, told reporters. “We have a lot to live up to and a lot to do before we can reach our potential, but I don’t sense any complacency.”

ABOUT KENTUCKY (1-0): Calipari normally doesn't use a zone defense, but he switched to one to start the second half and it helped when the Wildcats unleashed an 18-0 run soon after. "Early in the year, (Coach) told us that he has never really used them,'' 6-6 freshman guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who recorded 13 points, four assists and three steals on Friday, told reporters. "But, he told us that we were so long and athletic that he is going to have to use it. So (Friday), it really helped." Freshman forward Kevin Knox recorded 12 points, six rebounds, four assists and four steals versus Utah Valley.

TIP-INS

1. Kentucky started five freshmen on Friday for the first time since the 2014 National Championship game, when it lost to Connecticut 60-54.

2. Calipari is 250-53 with the Wildcats, including 135-6 at Rupp Arena.

3. Vermont is 2-26 all-time versus Top 25 teams, defeating Boston College 77-63 in 2006 and Syracuse 60-57 in overtime in the 2005 NCAA Tournament.

PREDICTION: Kentucky 80, Vermont 58