UK Athletics Photo
It was just over three minutes into the game when Arkansas’ Makhi Mitchell and Kentucky’s Oscar Tshiebwe got tangled up near the Kentucky basket.
There was already an emotional atmosphere at Bud Walton Arena with no empty seats and the Razorback fans were expecting Arkansas to complete a two-game sweep of Kentucky after winning 88-73 in Rupp Arena last month.
In that earlier win, Mitchell and his twin brother got physical with Tshiebwe and limited him to seven points and seven rebounds. Tshiebwe was determined not to let that happen again and after exchanging shoves, he swung his elbow and hit Mitchell in the head. After an official review, Tshiebwe and Arkansas freshman guard Anthony Black received dead ball technical fouls.
That lit a fire for Tshiebwe, who had UK’s next eight points and 10 points in a six-minute run. He had all 12 points by halftime of UK’s 88-79 win and also had 13 rebounds.
“We said before that we were going to refuse to lose,” said Tshiebwe. “We came out not ready against Vandy. We thought because we beat them by 18 (in Nashville) it would be easy.”
Tshiebwe said UK had the same type of attitude Vanderbilt did at Rupp Arena and was determined not to let Arkansas do the same thing to it again. For Tshiebwe, that included not getting pushed around.
“To help my team I just need to relax. Sometimes you get too much … Sometimes I get mad and do not deal with this,” Tshiebwe told Jack Givens on the Kentucky Radio Network. “I need to do better to help my teammates and not get technical. I got to relax.
“This game will prepare us for what is coming. We are fighting for our lives. This game was good to prepare us for the tournament.”
Kentucky coach John Calipari said Tshiebwe starts getting “frustrated” with how defenses knock him around.
“You just get grabbed and pushed and held enough. You get frustrated. Watch the tape. They’re not allowed to block out facing him. As soon as they do it, it’s a foul. No it isn’t. But that is a foul,” Calipari said after the 88-79 win.
“The rulebook says you cannot face a guy and block him out. That’s a foul. So he gets frustrated with it. He’s trying to go rebound and a guy … ‘It’s like alignment in football, putting two arms around a defensive player. It’s frustrating. You’re going to throw your arms and go crazy to get around him. So, but that’s not him. I mean, he’s been here two year.'”
