Following back-to-back victories last week, Kentucky men’s basketball (12-6, 3-2 SEC) will return to Rupp Arena to host the Texas Longhorns (11-7, 2-3 SEC) in hopes of extending its conference win streak to four.

The teams have met only twice before. Kentucky traveled to Austin last season for Texas’ first season in the SEC, and the Longhorns came out victorious, upsetting then-No. 15 Kentucky 82-78.

The only other meeting came in a season opener during the 2014-15 season, when then-No. 6 Texas traveled to Lexington to face No. 1 Kentucky. The Wildcats won 63-51.

What to watch:

Kentucky and Texas have posted similar numbers this season. The Wildcats are averaging 82.9 points per game, while Texas holds a slight edge at 86.3. Kentucky is shooting 48.1% from the field and 34.9% from 3-point range, while the Longhorns are shooting 48.5% overall and 34.5% from beyond the arc.

Texas’ leading scorer, Dailyn Swain, and Kentucky’s Otega Oweh are averaging 15.7 and 15.6 points per game, respectively.

Kentucky has picked up wins against both Mississippi State and Tennessee — two teams Texas has lost to — but the Longhorns own a win over Alabama, a team that beat Kentucky 89-74 in its SEC opener.

Kentucky enters the matchup coming off a week of wins, while Texas is coming off a loss to rival Texas A&M after back-to-back upsets.

The Longhorns are on the rise — ish:

Under a first-year head coach, Texas entered the season with reasonably low expectations. However, the Longhorns were able to retain some of their most important players from last season’s roster, making them a veteran-heavy squad.

However, Texas has already risen far above expectations, all within the past two weeks, after dropping its first two conference games of the season.

The Longhorns pulled off back-to-back upsets over No. 14 Alabama and, more notably, undefeated No. 10 Vanderbilt last week, dominating the Commodores in an 80-64 victory.

They also picked up another ranked win earlier this season with a 102-97 victory over No. 23 NC State.

The Longhorns are led by Swain, who, aside from scoring, leads the team with 7.2 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.7 steals per game, while shooting 55.6% from the field.

Aside from Swain, the team has three other players averaging double-digit points per game.

FAU transfer Matas Vokietaitis, while averaging 15.2 points per game, is also shooting the best on the team at 65.1% from the field.

Two of Texas’ most notable returners, Tramon Mark and Jordan Pope, are the other two Longhorns averaging double-digit points, with Mark at 13.4 points per game, 3.2 rebounds per game and 2.2 assists per game.

Pope is closely behind with 13.2 points per game, 2.1 rebounds per game and 2.4 assists per game.

The Longhorns’ biggest struggle this season has been consistency. After their upset victory over Vanderbilt, they fell in a 74-70 loss to the Aggies. Texas is currently 1-2 on the road this season.

However, it is not a team to overlook, and Kentucky will need to bring its A-game to pick up a win.

Kentucky is back on track:

After an uninspiring start to conference play, the Cats have seemed to take a turn for the better and are playing some of their best basketball this season, taking three straight SEC victories over Mississippi State (92-68), LSU (75-74) and No. 24 Tennessee (80-78).

Similar to the Longhorns, the Cats have found ways to pull off victories in games nobody gave them a chance to win, most notably in their two comeback victories last week against the Tigers and Volunteers.

Over its last three games, Kentucky’s offense has grown substantially, averaging 82.3 points per game, shooting 49.1% from the field and 43.5% from 3-point range, and recording more than 16 assists per game.

Defensively, the Cats are averaging 31.3 rebounds per game, including 11.7 offensive and 19.7 defensive rebounds. They are also averaging 9.7 steals and 3.7 blocks per game. The Cats are currently second in the SEC in opponent points allowed (70.2) and offensive rebounds allowed (9.9).

Aberdeen is getting hot on offense for the Cats, with back-to-back games scoring more than 20 points. While on average, only Aberdeen and Oweh are averaging double-digit points per game, Kentucky has had four or more players finish in that margin in its past three games.

What the odds say:

ESPN Analytics currently gives Kentucky a 76.3% chance of victory, with the line at six and a half points in favor of the Cats.

Kentucky will face off against Texas on Wednesday, Jan. 21, at 7 p.m. EST inside Rupp Arena. The game will air live on the SEC Network.