UNCW Coach Knew Winning in Rupp Arena Was Possible

Antonio Reeves and Kentucky could never get the offense rolling Saturday. (Vicky Graff Photo)

The last time Takayo Siddle was in Rupp Arena he scored eight points, dished out three assists and grabbed two rebounds as Gardner-Webb stunned Kentucky 84-68 on Nov. 7, 2007.

Saturday he was back in Rupp Arena as the UNC-Wilmington head coach and once again he left a winner as his team stunned UK 80-73 five days after the Cats had routed No. 8 Miami at Rupp Arena.

Siddle said he mentioned the Gardner-Webb win “briefly” to his team.

“It was so long ago, and they don’t want to hear about my glory days at all. My message was believe. Anything can happen and little Gardner-Webb  came in here back in 2007 and we had the same outcome then we quickly moved on because they didn’t want to hear that but I think they understood the message I was trying to get across to them,” the coach said.

“We came in here believing that we could win the game. We know how talented we are as a ball club and our guys did a tremendous job executing.”

Trazarien White had 27 points in the win and said Siddle never lets his players underestimate what they can do.

“He is going to push you to be the greatest you can be on and off the court. He had the keys to success, and we just followed him, and it worked out in our favor,” White said.

UNCW shredded UK’s defense often during the game with straight-line drives that the Cats could not consistently stop.

“In our pregame and going through our scouting routine, Coach ( talked about trying to get paint touches. So, when we had the defense collapse into that, we just kept making plays and that was what the deal was with that one,” guard Donovan Newby, who had 15 points, said.

UNCW also disrupted UK’s offensive flow. It forced 14 turnovers and held UK to 29 percent (5-for1-17) shooting from 3-point range.

“We did what we normally do. We wanted to extend our pressure up the court, be really aggressive in the passing lanes and try to eat the basketball up and it probably flushed them to the paint a little bit and they probably thought they had an advantage to the inside or with their athleticism touching the paint,” Siddle said.

“I thought our guys were really aggressive, I feel like they were on their heels a little bit and we stayed aggressive throughout the game, and it paid off for us.”

Siddle expected his team to “have to withstand some adversity” against Kentucky and the Rupp Arena crowd.

“Our guys never wavered. They took some haymakers and responded with our own haymakers. We finished the game off like veterans and I am very proud of our guys,” Siddle said.