Keion Brooks' play helped UK rout Kansas and climb to No. 5 in this week's AP poll. (Vicky Graff Photo)
“That was a great basketball team we played (Saturday night),” he said following the Jayhawks’ 80-62 loss to the Wildcats. “We were not good at all. I’m not sure how good we could be to keep them from being that great. That team that we played tonight could win it all. I know that we contributed to them playing well, but they were dominant, athletic and they shot it.”
Largely because of a dominating performance on the road, the Wildcats jumped from 12th to No. 5 in the latest Associated Press Top-25 rankings released Monday. Kansas dropped from fifth to No. 10 following the loss to Kentucky. The Wildcats’ win over Kansas marked the Jayhawks’ 16th home loss in 302 games in the Self era at Kansas and was Kentucky’s largest margin over a top 5 ranked team on the road in school history.
“Every time we play like a team, I don’t think anybody can stop us,” Kentucky forward Oscar Tshiebwe said after the win over the Jayhawks.
Auburn (20-1) remained No. 1, followed by Gonzaga, UCLA, and Purdue. The Tigers have won 17 straight games coming off a win over Oklahoma in the Big 12-SEC Challenge. For the first time in three years, the Southeastern Conference has two teams ranked in the top 5.
BROOKS HONORED
“The way he came out tonight was unbelievable,” Tshiebwe said. “I’m so proud of him and I want him to keep coming like that every night. That’s how we are going to be a top team.”
Kentucky hosts Vanderbilt Wednesday night, followed by a road game at Alabama on Saturday.
One Response
This was a great win without a great scoring effort from our guards. The guards played great defense, shared the ball with the bigs, and had single digit turnovers. Ty and Davion only had 2 points between them going 1 for 12 from the field and 0 for 2 from the free throw line. They left at least 12 points on the floor which would have made it a 30 point win. That is how great this team can be. This was the first time this season that the bigs took more shots than the littles did. When the bigs get more shots, we are a better team. Will the guards realize this and keep it up or will they go back to taking more shots and giving up multiple line drives to the basket? This game is our blueprint to be a Final 4 team.