Kentucky’s Trip to Knoxville Comes With a Message: “Let’s Do It Again”
Before Kentucky even boarded the bus to Knoxville, Otega Oweh made sure the team was already in the right headspace. He dropped a TikTok in the team group chat - a throwback to last season’s trip to Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center.
It wasn’t just for fun. It was a reminder.
A spark. A challenge.
That clip? It showed the Wildcats walking into enemy territory last year, severely shorthanded and still walking out with a win.
No Kerr Kriisa. No Lamont Butler.
Jaxson Robinson was thrust into point guard duties. Andrew Carr’s back gave out a minute into the game.
They were double-digit underdogs. And yet, they shot 50% from the field, 50% from deep, and stunned No.
8 Tennessee 78-73.
Koby Brea led the way with 18 points. Robinson added 17.
Oweh dropped 14. Ansley Almonor chipped in 12.
The trio of Brea, Robinson and Almonor combined for 11 threes. And Amari Williams?
He posted a monster 10-point, 15-rebound double-double.
The defining moment came with 25 seconds left. Kentucky was up one.
Oweh stepped to the line and calmly sank two free throws to push the lead to three. Tennessee missed a desperation three, and Oweh was fouled again.
As “Go Big Blue” chants rang out in the heart of Vols country, he hit both free throws again to ice the game.
That moment - the celebration, the silenced crowd, the sea of blue in a wave of orange - stuck with Oweh. Now, he wants this version of the Wildcats to feel it for themselves.
“Otega sent a message to the group, some TikTok about their two wins last season against Tennessee,” said freshman Andrija Jelavic. “And we were just like, ‘We need to get busy.’”
Oweh remembers it vividly. “It was last year when we were at Tennessee, and I was at the free throw line, and they just started chanting, ‘Go Big Blue,’” he said.
“So I was like, ‘Yeah, let’s go in there and do that again. Let’s have them cheer ‘Go Big Blue’ in their home arena.’”
Believe it or not, Knoxville has been kind to Kentucky in recent years. They’ve won three straight at Thompson-Boling and five of the last six dating back to the 2019-20 season. Even when they’ve been counted out, the Wildcats have found a way to rise to the moment in one of the SEC’s toughest environments.
But as much as Kentucky won the regular-season battles last year - including that gutsy road win and the follow-up in Lexington - Tennessee got the one that mattered most. The Volunteers sent the Wildcats packing in the Sweet 16, ending their NCAA Tournament run in Indianapolis. It was a bitter pill, and while Oweh isn’t dwelling on it, he knows what a win in Knoxville would mean.
“If I’m being honest, I’m not even thinking about that really,” he said of the tournament loss. “I just really want to get a win.
Obviously, we know - I know what it is to play Tennessee every time I do. So, yeah, it’s that emotion tied to it as well, but I’m really just trying to get this win.”
This year’s roster has changed, but the rivalry remains. Only Oweh, Collin Chandler, Brandon Garrison and Trent Noah return from those Tennessee matchups last season. It’s on them to carry the torch, to help the newcomers understand what this game means - not just on the schedule, but to the fanbase that lives and breathes this rivalry.
And this group is catching on fast.
Freshmen Malachi Moreno and Jasper Johnson grew up in Kentucky. They’ve lived this rivalry their whole lives.
They know what it means to beat Tennessee. They know what it feels like to lose to them, too.
Add in a couple of SEC transfers who’ve had their own run-ins with the Vols, and the message is spreading.
“Everyone already knows,” Oweh said. “We’ve got a lot of Kentucky guys, and on top of that, a couple of guys that played in the SEC.
So everyone knows the stakes. On top of that, we just want to win the game and get on the right side of this road trip, really.”
Jelavic, who’s experiencing all of this for the first time - college hoops, SEC rivalries, the whole thing - may have the most honest take of all. He doesn’t know all the history. But he knows how he feels.
“It’s definitely big,” he said. “I see fans texting me all the time, it’s one of the biggest rivalries. I don’t even know them, but you just adapt to that rivalry and you just don’t like them instantly.
“I really, and we really, want to go out there and make a statement against them.”
That’s the mindset Kentucky is bringing into Knoxville. Not just to relive last year’s magic, but to write a new chapter - one that starts with a statement, and ends with another chant of “Go Big Blue” echoing through Rocky Top.