Vicky Graff Photo
Only two freshmen in the John Calipari era had managed to grab 15 rebounds in a Southeastern Conference road game — Julius Randle in 2014 and Bam Adebayo in 2017.
Now you can add Chris Livingston’s name to that list after he pulled off 15 boards Wednesday night in an 82-74 win at Florida and Kentucky needed them all after blowing all of a 15-point lead in the first half.
“I don’t know if Kentucky could have won this game without him playing like he did,” former UK All-American Jack Givens said on the UK Radio Network.
He’s right. Kentucky could not have won without him.
Livingston had his second straight double-double with 10 points on 4-for-11 shooting to go with his 15 rebounds. He also had two assists and one steal in 39 minutes of play.
Four of his rebounds were on the offensive end and the biggest one came in the final minute. Kentucky was clinging to a 74-72 lead when Cason Wallace missed a 3-point shot. Livingston not only came from beyond the 3-point line in the corner to get the rebound, but he scored, got fouled and made the free throw to push the lead to 77-72 with 46 seconds left.
“He bailed Kentucky out of a brutal half-court possession,” ESPN analyst Jimmy Dykes said. “He had the strength to finish through contact.”
Livingston was not perfect. He took and missed a 3-point shot way too early in the first half during Florida’s 13-0 scoring run. He got beat a couple of times on defense. But he also made several hustle plays including going and getting the rebound after a Florida miss with the Cats leading 78-72.
“We jumped out on them and then we kind of relaxed,” Livingston told Givens on the postgame radio show. “Not saying we think it is going to be easy but we did relax. Guys from Florida were playing free and loose and some were making shots they normally don’t make. At the half we said we had to limit their 3’s and be more assignment sound.”
Livingston was just 4-for-11 from the field and knew he was not having his best offensive game.
“Not every night is going to be your night. I was missing shots and had to do some other things to help my team on defense and rebounding,” the freshman said.
“I am getting more comfortable and more free and more confident every game. Teams are sending two guys against Oscar (Tshiebwe), the best rebounder in the country. It’s a good thing we got other guys who rebound the ball really well.”
But none rebounded it better at the biggest time than Livingston.
7 Responses
This was a very nice game by UK. Oscar could not be stopped tonight. Without Castleton, Florida had no answer for Oscar. Livingston, as noted in this column, was on the floor making a difference time after time. Reeves made shots when the team needed them to go down. Toppin continues to play like a man on a mission, and Wallace is running the team quite well.
These 5 have learned to play together and are improving.
I feel bad for Fredrick for his rib injury, and cracked ribs are painful, very slow, and difficult to heal, simply breathing interferes with the mending that must occur. He has been plagued with injuries since he arrived at UK.
I wonder if Wheeler or Fredrick will return this season at all. I hope they both do, but the way this program protects this sort of information, we probably won’t know any more about either of them until we see them back in action. I wonder if the end of half difficulties this team had tonight is fatigue related, and Fredrick and Wheeler could help prevent those poor finishes.
I read yesterday that Wheeler will be back for the Auburn game Saturday.
Hope that is right. I have not heard Calipari say that
Yes Chris is playing with a new found confidence that was not there earlier . congrats,
Now my frustration, Oscar continues to cost scores against Cats every game. He leaves his man on pick n roll, causing another shorter guy to pick up his man and it multiplies as the 3rd Cat has to leave his man to try and stop a wide open 2 or 3 . or a drive to easy bucket,
Oscar did it 7 times in a row first halfand many more 2nd, Wonder why he only had 4 reboounds. Well it was because he switched and went with other guy out on 3 line. he was no where close for any rebounding. Cal it’s not rocket science. he made baskets great offense but lousy defense,
???? Cats were cruising perfect rhythym up by 15 and he completely took all 4 guys out. was he feeling sorry for Gators or just making a dumb decision, Gators went on a tear and were up by 1 at half..Cat’s were lucky to get the W in this game
Great game to listen to. The guys are really starting to develope chemistry. We always save vacation time for March and April and these guys are playing like we did the right thing. I love the tough close wins. I think a team builds confidence by winning those battles. And they fought hard last night. Great win for a team that is 9-2 in their last 11 games.
Jimmy Dykes is the reason I stopped watching games. In my opinion he seems to always use a negative slant towards us. He could have just commented on the atheletic play but he had to throw in the “He bailed Kentucky out of a brutal half-court possession,” . Even if he hadn’t made that play we were still up 2 and would have gotten the ball back with time on the clock. I know this sounds crazy but it’s more exciting to me listening. The excitement in Jack and Tom voices when the game gets intense is great to hear. The pull no punches commentary when we don’t play well. Jack perspective as an all time great! The crowd in the background. Heck I listen to the entire broadcast including Wildcat wrapup.
I know a lot of people on here grew up listening to games on the radio like me. I suggest doing that for the next game or any game(If you haven’t done it lately). Have a throwback game day and listen to the call. Win or lose I promise you will enjoy it better than the TV broadcast!
Oh yeah. Have the tv on in another room so you can go check out the replays. LOL Good win by a team that is now understanding their rolls and playing together.
Is FL going to do anything (or NCAA) about the three students/young men who assualted our team while they were playing.
I would say no Sarah