The Marshall Thundering Herd and the Kentucky Wildcats meet Friday in college basketball action from Rupp Arena. Marshall is sitting at 2-3 on the season so far following a loss to Oakland on Tuesday. As for Kentucky, they put up an eight-point win over Saint Joseph’s in their last outing to improve to 4-1 overall. Here’s a Marshall vs Kentucky Prediction.

Marshall Thundering Herd

The Herd had a pretty routine 89-73 win over Queens U in their first matchup of the year, but then fell 66-62 to Radford and 83-60 to Utah State in a couple of flat efforts after that. Marshall got back into the win column on Monday versus FIU though, taking it 80-69 thanks to a 50 percent shooting clip and 36 rebounds. 

Marshall was within one point of Oakland 30-29 at the break in their latest matchup, but ultimately couldn’t hold it in a 78-71 loss. The Herd got a team-high 18 points with two steals from Kevon Voyles, and Nate Martin ended up posting a double-double on 12 points and 11 rebounds. 

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Kentucky Wildcats 

Over on the Kentucky side, they’ve got just one blemish on the card so far this year. That one came in an 89-84 loss to Kansas in game three. Otherwise the Wildcats beat New Mexico State 86-46, Texas A&M-Commerce 81-61 and Stonehill 101-67 in their first four games. In the win over Stonehill, Kentucky shot an excellent 63.9 percent from the field. 

Kentucky got into some trouble on Monday versus Saint Joseph’s but everything worked out well in the end. The Wildcats needed overtime to secure a 96-88 victory, as both Tre Mitchell (six rebounds; four assists) and Dajuan Wagner (six assists; three rebounds) each scored a team-high 22 points. Antonio Reeves added 20 points as well. 

ANDREW’S FREE KENTUCKY VS MARSHALL PREDICTION 

I’ll probably just stay with Kentucky. I’m also probably not touching this one, though. The Wildcats shot quite well in their OT victory versus Saint Josephs, with 51.6 percent from the field and 48 percent from 3-point range. That said, Kentucky also went just 18-of-27 (66.7 percent) from the line and got outmuscled on the offensive glass 14-12. Overall it was a resilient escape but it doesn’t breed much confidence in the Wildcats. 

As for Marshall, they shot a tepid 37 percent from the field and 20 percent (7-of-35) from outside in their latest loss to Oakland. The Herd was pretty good on the boards with 48 rebounds, though. I like Kentucky to bounce back and post a dominant wire-to-wire run in this one; the Wildcats are certainly capable of a blowout win Friday.