UK Athletics Photo
Another big stage, another fizzle for Kentucky.
Just when the Kentucky fan base was fighting to get back on the UK bandwagon after four straight wins that included a victory at No. 5 Tennessee, the Cats just were not good enough against Kansas Saturday night and lost 77-68.
That makes Kentucky 11-19 against top 10 teams since 2015 and 5-25 versus top 25 teams since the 2019-20 season.
Kansas All-American candidate Jalen Wilson had 22 points, including a huge 3-pointer in the final five minutes, along with eight rebounds. Kentucky simply could not guard him most of the game.
“This feels great,” Wilson said after Kansas broke a rare three-game winning streak. “Winning any time on a stage like this… a lot of pride on the line. This game means a lot to a lot of people. It was good to get a win and get our train rolling again.”
Now will this derail Kentucky’s train or just be a bump in the road?
Kentucky seemed to have found the right formula using point guard Cason Wallace, shooting guards CJ Fredrick and Antonio Reeves, power forward Jacob Toppin and center Oscar Tshiebwe together. However, for a variety of reasons that lineup did not play that much together Saturday and sometimes struggled when it did.
Fredrick, who had emerged as a team leader, was 1-for-8 from the field and 0-for-5 from 3-point range. He also did not have a rebound in 29 minutes. Reeves had 10 points but was only 3-for-9 from the field and missed the three 3-pointers he tried. He also had just two rebounds in 30 minutes.
Jacob Toppin had 14 points on 6-for-11 shooting but he pulled off just four rebounds in 32 minutes.
“I mean I feel like we were physical, but we weren’t physical enough. I didn’t rebound the ball. I think they beat us on the rebounds too, so that was the it factor,” Toppin said. “Every other game we’ve won we’ve dominated on the boards, and we didn’t do that today.
“I didn’t rebound the ball. I wasn’t fighting the first half, second half I got I think four rebounds, but that wasn’t a fight. I’ve got to go for more rebounds.”
There were lineup questions. Chris Livingston had eight points the first half but played only the first minute of the second half before Calipari took him out and never played him again — a move Calipari admitted was probably a mistake.
Former starting point guard Sahvir Wheeler played 14 minutes and had two points and one rebound. Social media had many blaming him but the lack of 3-point shooting and rebounding — not to mention pick-and-roll defense — were all bigger problems.
And throw in that Kansas had a similar mentality that UK had two weeks ago when it went to Tennessee and beat the No. 5 Vols.
“The win they got in Tennessee was very similar to the win that we got tonight,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “They didn’t have a lot of momentum at that moment, and we didn’t either. They probably put together as good of a performance as we’ve seen on the road. And I don’t know that ours was that good tonight, but considering where we were, you look out there, we’re not the biggest team.
“There’s some things that we don’t do great, but our guys do compete and they fight — and I think there’s just a lot of pride within it.”
Kansas did seem to play with just a bit more of an edge than UK did, took a few haymakers from UK early and then did not wilt down the stretch.
Now one has to wonder how Kentucky will respond. Will it come back with the same hunger it had at Tennessee? Will losing hurt the team’s confidence/swagger?
“I definitely believed that we were going to win this game tonight. I feel like those 3’s they hit were simple mistakes we made on the floor, but they were able to hit them. It is tough for us but it is hard to come back when they hit 3’s like that,” Reeves said.
“No, I do not think it changes at all (what UK can do). It just means we need to get back to the basics and figure out what we need to do on the floor next time. It is a marathon, it is not just one game, it is multiple games, so we just have to figure it out.”
6 Responses
LV – good assessment – KU was the better team yesterday. At first glance they had much more big, physical depth.
Bill Self coached a great game. Calipari not so much.
Self took away the one huge advantage that UK should have been able to exploit, rebounding (particularly offensive rebounding) and second-chance points. That is what coaches do, or at least should do.
Finally, the idea that Wheeler is a difference maker (at least in a positive sense) was fully exposed last night yet again. The cohesion of the team, the pace of the game, and UK’s competiveness against the better Kansas team changed the moment Calipari put Wheeler in after the under 12 timeout of the first half. UK never regained its footing after than one personnel change.
Professor, Wheeler is Calipari’s pet. He is going to play Wheeler no matter how it impacts the team. Wheeler will be the straw that breaks Calipari’s back. We will not make the Big Dance. We may not even make the NIT. Nothing has changed. Negotiate a buyout for this guy and start rebuilding our program.
I’ve never been one to want us to lose at anything. But I’ve reached a point that if losing every remaining game was a guarantee that Cal would be gone I would take it!
Even if we limp into the NCAAT we would be very lucky to in a single game.
It’s reached the point the sooner we are rid of Cal the better.
I don’t care if he had a NBA all star team coming in next season.
He can’t coach!
With one quality win and one VERY bad loss we’ll have to pretty much run the table going forward including anyone ranked in conference – then produce at least two wins in the SEC tourney. If Coach wants the monkey off his back please read the above. It’s possible but unlikely probable.
Poor shooting and getting beat on the boards killed UK. I do think Kansas got away with mugging Oscar all night long, but no calls. Kansas was a wounded animal coming in and played like it. Kansas was indeed the better team. C.J. couldn’t hit a much needed shot all night. I give Kansas credit for their defense, and physical play. UK couldn’t seem to match their physicality, nor guard Wilson.