The 91-77 victory over Vanderbilt on Saturday may not have been Kentucky’s most stunning performance of this college basketball season, despite how fantastic it appeared from tip to buzzer. There are several deserving contenders for that distinction. For the first time this season, the Cats had their whole roster, led by Jaland Lowe and Jayden Quaintance, who have since been sidelined, in the victory over St. John’s on a neutral court on December 20. This gave a national television audience a glimpse of what the team was capable of.
This season, Mark Pope’s team has already defeated SEC foe Tennessee twice, including a significant upset in Knoxville that required a lot of perseverance and coincided with a five-game winning streak for the UK. The Cats’ upset victory over Arkansas, which not only defeated John Calipari but also a Razorbacks club that is among the best in the conference, was a cathartic event for the UK supporters back home and looked extremely great on a Selection Sunday resume for both practical and personal reasons.
However, the aftermath of those victories has been full of low points. Additionally, the most recent downturn in Kentucky happened at a really bad time. The Cats lost three straight games after defeating Tennessee in Rupp Arena on February 7. At Florida, they were defeated. There’s no shame in that. However, they then allowed one to escape against Georgia in Rupp, which was unacceptable given the situation.
After a contentious loss to an Auburn team that was on a five-game losing streak four days later, Pope was fined $25,000 by the conference for venting his frustration at the referees. Meanwhile, Kentucky supporters everywhere were furious about the program’s condition amid a season that appeared to be on the verge of collapse once more. The next time out, UK ended that losing streak, but a 72-63 victory over the poorest South Carolina team in the SEC wasn’t going to make anyone think differently.
That chance was presented by Saturday’s rematch with Vanderbilt. In addition to delivering, the Cats put on a show that should make their many detractors reconsider dismissing them. Pope’s squad repaid the favor a month and a day after Vandy dominated Kentucky in Memorial Gym, leading 20 at the half and preventing the Cats from getting close in the second half to win 80-55. The UK was the aggressor this time.
Collin Chandler led the Cats into the first TV break of the afternoon with a 21-14 lead thanks to a barrage of 3-pointers in the early going and other contributions from other players on the court. Against Vanderbilt in Nashville, they scored 23 points in the first half. Making plays for teammates is all. Otega Oweh, a celebrity from the UK, stated, “I think that’s how we started.” “We had some stops, pushed it in transition, and had guys running corners and filling behind rather than just pounding into the paint.” Collin was on a few transition 3s early.
“I think we can really get going in the first few minutes when we just be aggressive and make plays for teammates.” The Cats continued to roll. With five minutes remaining in the first half, that gap had grown to twenty points, and the Commodores had little opportunity to recover from that early blow. because they were prohibited by the UK.
Mark Byington, the coach of Vandy, assured his team prior to the opening game that they could push the Cats around. And they accomplished just that, putting Pope’s squad on its heels the whole evening by enforcing their toughness from the first tip. The Vandy players boasted about their strategy following that first game. That didn’t sit good. Oweh declared, “It was definitely personal.” We simply wanted to confirm that we were the more physical squad this time. All we have to do is be the first team to hit. We set the tone for the entire game when we do that, in my opinion.
In the second game, Vanderbilt was equally aggressive. This time, Kentucky simply gave it back. The Dores were outnumbered 29–22 by the Cats. They prevailed 10–6 in the battle of second-chance points. They outscored Vandy by ten at the free-throw line after attacking the rim. Devin McGlockton and AK Okereke, Byington’s starting big men, both fouled out of the game.
It wasn’t simple. McGlockton was sent back to the locker room for additional evaluation after he thrashed his arm into Brandon Garrison’s head on one play, leaving the UK big man in a heap on the court. Later in the second half, Garrison made a comeback. Malachi Moreno had a deep cut beneath his right eye when he arrived for postgame interviews. He was only able to say that it happened at some point during the game, not when. He learned about it from a trainer. His answer? “Well, it’s not the first time.”
The first half of the game was as remarkable as Kentucky’s entire season. Chandler was completely lucid. He made four consecutive 3-pointers after missing his first of the day. He went 6 for 8 from beyond the arc and finished with a career-high 23 points. (As spectacular as that first half was, the second was possibly more significant.) A contentious foul call that went against him, which has been Chandler’s recent trend, eliminated a seventh-made three.
Despite their best efforts, the 25th-ranked Commodores are unable to get back into the game. Vandy never recovered inside ten points after falling behind by fifteen at the half and thirteen after Tyler Nickel scored a basket ten seconds into the second half. “We just said that we got to start to expand the lead when we arrived in the locker room at halftime,” Moreno remarked. “And simply crush their game by stepping on their necks.”
In the second half, Kentucky had a 22-point lead. In the final four minutes, Vandy outscored the Cats 10-2, making the final score seem more reasonable than it actually was. The Dores technically “won” the second half by a score of 46-45 thanks to their last burst of activity. That was perfectly acceptable to Pope. Indeed, he celebrated it without delay.
“I was proud of the 46-45 second half,” he said. “I was really proud of that. And, you know, that’s with us playing far from perfect, but making enough plays. I was really proud of the guys for staying really aggressive. As Vanderbilt tried to extend the press, our guys just attacked it. It’s what we do when we’re at our best. There’s not second guessing. Guys were super aggressive against the press, and we ended up with four or five layups — a couple of and-ones — just with our guys making great, aggressive decisions. And that’s how you want your guys to feel. You don’t want them to feel like they’re on their heels, and they did a nice job of that.”
Pope bemoaned that his guards weren’t aggressive enough against the Bulldogs’ press the last time his Cats were in Rupp, during the 86-78 defeat to Georgia, and they suffered as a result. They didn’t give up this time. As Vandy attempted and failed to stop the ball in the backcourt, Oweh scored 17 of his 23 points in the second half, several of which came during transitions. Oweh stayed on the gas and scored at the rim most of the time rather than retreating and defending the lead.
In a team-high 37 minutes on the field, Denzel Aberdeen recorded 15 points, four assists, and—more impressively—zero turnovers. Over Kentucky’s last four games, Aberdeen has played 144 minutes. In that period, he has only made one turnover. Pope remarked, “He’s been incredible.”
But Pope was happy after this one for more reasons than just the offensive excellence. The Cats launched the initial attack against a squad that had defeated them by 25 points a month prior. Most significantly, they continued to fight throughout the afternoon, adding another daring line to their NCAA Tournament resume.
We’re attempting to secure our tournament seed, so it’s crucial,” Moreno stated. “And we want to create some noise and show people that we’re not going anywhere—we’re here to play.” Many people believed that this team’s window had already closed before Saturday. There was little reason for fans to think their Cats would play by the second week of March Madness when they examined bracketology projections and those possible second-round matches.
Those three defeats were disappointing. It was an ugly victory at South Carolina. There was more to this. The cats can play with anyone if they can play this way. And showing such an effort on the final day before the calendar flips to March is reason enough to believe that, perhaps, their story is not quite finished. “I mean, let’s just keep going every time we were together and conversing. Isn’t the goal of the game to win rather than to avoid losing? Chandler uttered those words. “We got off,” was our mindset. We gotta keep going. We gotta keep putting the pressure on them.’
“Because that’s when we’re great. And that’s when we’re playing our best. And I thought we did a really good job of that tonight.”
