Rick Stansbury: They were the best team in America today

Kentucky guard Sahvir Wheeler and his teammates had a lot to cheer about during Wednesday's win. (Vicky Graff Photo)

Getting beat 90-65 is not what Western Kentucky coach hoped for when he agreed to play at Rupp Arena Wednesday night after Louisville canceled a game with Kentucky. However, Stansbury, a Kentucky native, was appreciative his team had the opportunity to play Kentucky.

“I’ll say this again, give Kentucky a lot of credit for their willingness to play this game. They didn’t have to play it. Their willingness to donate money to our community in the state of Kentucky (for tornado relief). So, I told Cal, they had nothing to gain but playing the game, he knows and that’s why he hadn’t played it, but give him credit,” said Stansbury after the game.

Kentucky announced that $100,000 from ticket sales for the game would be donated to the tornado relief fund along with the $4.5 million already raised by the UK Athletics telethon.

However, the game was all Kentucky. Western Kentucky cut into the lead late in the first half but was outscored 58-32 in the second half.

“Today, we had no answers. Sometimes, you just got to say, ‘the other team was better,’ and they were better in every area. Again, I don’t have answers for anything they did,” Stansbury said.

“I just know when they play like that, they were the best team in America today. And again, they come out of a game last Saturday they beat North Carolina by 30 on a neutral court. So, it’s kind of not new that they did it on their own court today, but they were, their speed was quicker than we anticipated.”

Stansbury said his team’s poor shooting — 21 of 64 overall from the field and 3-for-20 from 3 — made it difficult for Western to set up its zone defense to slow down the Cats.

“We ended up playing more man (defense) than we wanted to, but the speed of (Sahvir) Wheeler changed the game in transition. It wore us out, so then they made shots. And you count that with what seemed like every rebound that was 50/50, they get every one of them,” Stansbury said.

Oscar Tshiebwe had a Rupp Arena record 28 rebounds — one more than Western Kentucky had as a team.

“Oscar gets whatever it was, 28 anyways, so he got everyone, no matter what it was,” Stansbury said. “Again, whatever things we didn’t do very well, it was because of Kentucky.

“We had no answers for everything they did today. I’ll repeat this: nobody would have beat them today.”