Sahvir Wheeler didn't have a field goal Tuesday but he did have 11 assists. (Vicky Graff Photo)
When a team gets 22 offensive rebounds and takes 22 more shots than an opponent and also gets 23 points off an opponent’s turnovers it is going to win. Or at least it seems like it should win.
Yet Kentucky overcame all that on the road Tuesday night to beat South Carolina 86-76 thanks to having six players in double figures and another player, Sahvir Wheeler, who had 11 assists.
“You don’t think of stuff like that,” junior forward Keion Brooks, who had 15 points, nine rebounds and five assists, said. “It just proves we can win in multiple ways even giving up 22 rebounds.
“Credit them. They played hard. They crashed the glass. They had some athletic guys who if you fall asleep on they run up your back and get boards. So this just shows we can win in many different style games.”
Yes Kentucky can and that’s what could make UK so dangerous in March Madness.
Just look at what happened this game:
— Oscar Tshiebwe got knocked around, picked up two fouls and was not really a factor in the first half. In the second half, he had 12 points and 12 rebounds and played like the leading candidate for national player of the year. Brooks said the players knew he would rebound and score.
— TyTy Washington had 14 points, three rebounds and three assists. He was 6-for-10 from the field and had a 3-pointer and floater in the second half on consecutive possessions when the Gamecocks were trying to get back in the game.
— Brooks was his recent new consistent standout. He was 6-for-9 from the field and could not have been more solid in his 32 minutes. He was so good that he got a hug from coach John Calipari when he snagged a two-handed rebound.
— Kellan Grady hit two 3-pointers and was 5-for-10 from the field. He also got three rebounds.
— Jacob Toppin was sensational the first half when he went 4-for-5 from the field and had 10 points and three rebounds in six minutes before having to leave the game for good with an ankle injury.
— Sixth-man Davion Mintz came off the bench again to provide 10 points on 3-for-6 shooting.
— Wheeler went 0-for-5 from the field and had five turnovers but he also had 11 assists and four rebounds. He had six assists in the first 10 minutes when UK surged to a 12-point lead.
Calipari was not happy with the rebounding and lack of aggressive offensive play in the first half. But he also thought it was a “great game” for Kentucky to play and win in another intense atmosphere.
“We shot 56 percent from the field, 40 from the 3,” Calipari said. “They are rough. They physically go after rebounds. They’re not worried about missing shots because they’re running three and four guys (to rebound).
“I mean, these dudes it’s playing Kentucky and they get after it. I mean the rest of our schedule is ridiculous. We’ve got to keep getting better, keep building. Everything I do … I’ve done this my whole career is built for March. Everything, which means you could lose some games and that’s not a bad thing.
“But you want to be played all kinds of different ways. You want overtime games. You want games like this where it goes 43-43 (in the second half) and you can find out who’s who and they can find out who’s who.”
For Kentucky, right now everyone playing is a “who’s who” and doing things to help a team win and that’s the exact momentum that Calipari wants to build for March.
5 Responses
I’m not going to complain about the bad numbers, we shot 56% FG and 40% from the 3’s it all equal out. We did kinda force some things in the paint that they don’t normally do that’s were most of our turnovers were at. Finally got a home game next it seems we been playing the road forever.
The good thing; for a team to get 22 offensive boards means they have to miss at least that many shots. The question then becomes, how many second chance points do they get. Didn’t see that stat.
Don’t think they get that many boards with refs that call over-the-back and several of those, from what I saw, were long rebounds. Seemed like really tight rims.
Last night was a status quo game for UK. It did what it needed to do to get another road win, but it did not elevate its game.
As for the second chance points, South Carolina had 16 points from its 22 offensive rebounds while UK scored 13 second chance points from 10 offensive rebounds. I will take the 1.3 ppp over the 0.7 ppp any day. Furthermore, South Carolina missed a lot of shots, and their offensive rebounding rate was 32% which is about the D1 average most seasons. At 32%, UK allowed this opponent to rebound at a higher rate than it has been allowing. UK’s grabbed only 24% of its misses which is about 1/2 of their average offensive rebounding rate this season.
Board work was off last night, and it seemed the UK players did not engage physically with the South Carolina players like we would like to see.
The other issue last night was turnovers, but that was true for both teams, turning ball over once every 5 possessions. That is significantly higher than this team’s season average.
This team overcame these issues with very good shooting throughout the game and very good defense, holding USC to 55 points on 75 possessions.
This was a repeat of the LSU game. The Gamecocks had the same gameplan…be brutally physical, don’t worry about committing fouls…the refs won’t and didn’t call half of them, but the Cats figured out how to play through it and win. Sahvir is still worried about his NBA stock. He helps this team by being a facilitator first and a defender second. This team doesn’t need for him to be a scorer, yet he thinks he has to be a scorer to have a future in the NBA. The kid needs to decide what is more important and go with that so the team can decide on how to use him. Jacob’s injury is concerning. Teams are double and triple teaming Oscar. They are face guarding Kellan. Jacob and Keion have been stepping up and delivering. Ty and Davion are getting back in their grooves and Lance is making the most of his minutes. If Jacob will be out a couple of games, it’s important for Damion to toughen up and pick up the slack. If he can’t, hopefully Hopkins can fill that role. The stats looked pedestrian, but that comes with a street brawl. If the team can stay healthy, they can go far. 7 games are left in the season and none of them will be easy. I see Auburn losing a couple of more games. Can we win out and take the season title? Only if we stay healthy and stay together as a team. Sahvir, would you rather be a key role player on a national championship team or try to be "the guy" on a team that doesn’t make the Final 4?
I believe UK will be favored in all remaining games except possibly the game at Tennessee for which the projected margin will be slim in either direction.
I think Auburn loses at Tennessee, and believe they could be vulnerable at Mississippi State or Florida, but at this point, I believe UK and Auburn finish 15-3 in the SEC and Auburn gets the #1 seed on the tie-breaker. Thank you SEC Schedulers.
On my earlier post, I grabbed the stats from the wrong game and want to correct the details, but the overall point remains the same. That paragraph should have read as follows:
As for the second chance points, South Carolina had 15 points from its 22 offensive rebounds while UK scored 12 second chance points from 8 offensive rebounds. I will take the 1.5 ppp over the 0.7 ppp any day. Furthermore, South Carolina missed a lot of shots, and their offensive rebounding rate was 41% which is very high. At 32%, UK allowed this opponent to rebound at a higher rate than it has been allowing. UK’s grabbed only 30% of its misses which is about 3/4 of their average offensive rebounding rate this season.
Sorry for the error, but it does not alter the substance of the point.