Vicky Graff Photo
Kentucky’s two leading scorers, Oscar Tshiebwe and Antonio Reeves, had four points apiece — and Kentucky still beat Florida 72-67.
Good teams find a way to win when that happens. Good teams show they can win in different ways.
Kentucky did that because Tshiebwe was awful offensively as he missed 12 of 14 shots while Reeves was just 2-for-5. Both struggled defensively — Reeves got beat so often on backdoor cuts that coach John Calipari played him only 19 minutes and went with Sahvir Wheeler because of his defense.
Tshiebwe, despite not having a rebound the final 11 minutes of the first half, did finish with 15 points but he had trouble stopping Florida’s Colin Castleton who had a game-high 25 points.
“Antonio, you know I love him,” Calipari said on his postgame radio show. “He got beat backdoor how many times. That’s why he wasn’t in. He was mad at himself but that is what is good about this team. There are different ways they can win and they are coming together and believing in themselves.”
Freshman guard Cason Wallace had 20 points but senior Jacob Toppin also had a big game with 17 points on 8-for-16 shooting and pulled off 10 rebounds in 35 minutes.
“It was a team effort,” Toppin said. “I kind of got on Oscar because he got down on himself because he was not doing what he wanted offensively. Obviously, you seen him struggle but other guys stepped up.”
Kentucky needed that in this must-win game. I know, must-win game in early February is not the norm for UK basketball but after a 1-3 start in SEC play and struggles in non-conference play, the Cats are on the NCAA Tournament bubble and need every win possible. Now UK has won five straight SEC games and now is tied for fourth in the league with Auburn at 7-3. Alabama is pulling away at 10-0 but the Cats are only one game behind Tennessee and Texas A&M and have wins over both teams. Auburn also has to come to Rupp Arena later this month as does Tennessee.
No, it’s not likely UK will win the league but keep playing like this and UK could make a run at second or definitely. More importantly, the Cats are now in a great spot to finish in the top four and get a double bye in the SEC Tournament.
“We can always improve in many areas,” Toppin said. “Defensively we can get better. I still believe we can be one of the best defensive teams in the country. Just got to stay assignment sound. We’re getting better.”
Yes the Cats are and now they need to keep that momentum going Tuesday when Arkansas comes to Rupp Arena. Arkansas was expected by many to be the league’s best team, or second best behind Kentucky, but injuries took its top two players and the Razorbacks started SEC play 1-5. However, they have now won four straight and pose another must-win scenario for Kentucky.
4 Responses
Few items
1. Oscar has to stop leaving his feet trying to block every shot. has to learn if he is up in the air takes time to come down abd hia man just blows by for easy score
2. Stop leaving your big man for small guy on pic n roll. he does it every time he was lucky 3 times as Florida threw ball away
3. He was trying too hard to score by holding onto ball . Kick it out as soon as u get it
4. Too many Cats are victims of back door cuts.. this is on coaching. WORK ON OT GUYS
5 Been begging all season play Collins. especially before Ware as I’ve said many times. Collins can shoot, rebound , block and yes make Free Throws. Ware has made only 1 all season. love his aggresivness but thst doesnt win games
I thought cats play there best offense wise of the season last night. I’m seeing they are improving as as a team just need to get better at defense side of the ball.
Oscar probably went under the radar… for other teams… last year. This year he’s got every team’s attention… so it’s going to be more difficult. However I think the four other players are stepping up… and that makes UK not such a one dimensional team. Oscar’s fine I think…
Good points Roy