Cats Starting To Look Scary With Better Starts, More Team Play

Maybe Kentucky really is figuring out how to be a much better team than it ever looked like it could be when it started Southeastern Conference play 0-2 and lost three of its top seven players for the season with injuries.

Kentucky beat Oklahoma 94-78 Wednesday night in Rupp Arena for its seventh win in eight games since the 0-2 conference race. The Cats are 7-3 in league games and trail only Florida and Texas A&M, both 7-2, in the standings.

Maybe more importantly, for the second straight game, Kentucky got off to a solid start. The team that seemed to always be behind by double digits in the first half — and sometimes 20 points — did not have a blazing start like it did in Saturday’s win at Arkansas but the Cats’ biggest deficit was 18-15. Kentucky never trailed the final 32 minutes.

Backup center Brandon Garrison had his first UK double-double with 20 points on 7-for-8 shooting from the field and 6-for-6 at the foul line along with 11 rebounds. He also had three assists in his 29 minutes. He said the Cats had made a “little change to pregame warmups” against Arkansas and Oklahoma.

“Since then we have started games fast,” Garrison said,

They certainly have and will need to continue that rather than fall behind to Tennessee by 17 points Saturday in Rupp Arena like the Cats did earlier in Knoxville and count on another miracle comeback.

“We got a big-time team coming in this weekend. We cannot get too high off this win,” Garrison said.

What Kentucky can do is hope to build on what truly was a team win much like it was at Arkansas.

— It was another 20-point game for Otega Oweh. The senior hit two-game winning shots against his former team last season and Wednesday he went off for 24 points on 7-for-11 shooting from the field and 7-for-9 from 3. He even made three of four from 3-point range. He added three assists and three rebounds in his 35 minutes and once again disrupted a team’s backcourt offense with his lockdown defense.

— Collin Chandler was 4-for-8 from 3 and had 18 points, three rebounds and three assists. Twice he scored on midrange shots, something he seldom does.

— Andrija Jelavic hit two 3-pointers early in the game to help UK get off to a good start offensively and not fall into an offensive rut in the first six minutes like it has too often. He finished with nine points, six rebounds and three assists.

— Kentucky had 21 assists and only six turnovers, its best ratio of the season. Kentucky assistant coach Mikhail McLean praised Denzel Aberdeen (five assists, one turnover) for setting the tone but Oweh, Chandler, Jelavic, Garrison and Mo Dioubate also had three assists apiece.

“I thought our guys did an outstanding job making plays for teammates. Denzel Aberdeen is not the  point guard coming off ball screens and throwing crazy passes. He is either going to score or make the simple play,” McLean said.

Kentucky was 9-for-16 from 3-point range in the first half but then took only 10 3’s in the second half and made three. The Cats went inside to go 13-for-20 from 2-point range and also made 16 of 19 free throws in the final half.

“I feel like we have been on a good winning streak,” Garrison said. “We started the year slow but we are starting to get the groove of the offense. We are about to click and then it is going to get scary.”

ESPN analyst Dane Bradshaw was in Rupp Arena earlier this year when Kentucky lost to Missouri with a late-game meltdown. He thought then Kentucky looked like a team that “did not know who was supposed to be the leader and who was supposed to be at what position.” He left Rupp Arena believing the Cats “looked lost” in the game.

He had a different impression Wednesday.

“I think Oklahoma said let’s make Kentucky beat us from 3 and that’s what they did (in the first half). They had five guys hit a 3,” Bradshaw said. “It didn’t matter. It just shows you the confidence Kentucky is playing with and some of that has got to be the carryover from a huge win at Arkansas. Multiple guys are playing with supreme confidence right now and I just was not sure that would happen this season after the Missouri game.”