‘Very frantic’ finish to victory gives UK reason to remain diligent
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Game day: No. 6 Kentucky 71, LSU 66
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Wednesday night’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and LSU in Rupp Arena.
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Winning while acknowledging room for improvement can seem ideal for a team. That’s how Kentucky saw its 71-66 victory over LSU on Wednesday night.
The need to improve came in the game’s final two minutes when Kentucky saw a 14-point lead twice narrow to four. During that time, UK committed turnovers on three straight possessions. The Cats also had to twice call timeouts with 3.7 seconds left because of an inability to inbound the ball.
“That was very frantic,” UK’s star of the game, freshman Bryce Hopkins, said. He noted how UK’s point guards and decision-makers, Sahvir Wheeler and TyTy Washington did not play.
“Without Sahvir and TyTy, it was kind of different …,” Hopkins said. “We kind of tried to think of something on the fly on how to get the ball in, and just get the game over with.
“So, I felt we didn’t really do too good with that.”
UK Coach John Calipari suggested Wheeler and Washington might not play at Arkansas on Saturday.
“We may have the same team going down to Arkansas,” he said.
Of the two timeouts with 3.7 seconds left, Calipari said the inbounders (first Keion Brooks, then Jacob Toppin) failed to take the easy route and just throw a high inbounds pass to big man Oscar Tshiebwe.
Calipari also lamented a turnover in which the UK ball-handler tried to dribble through two defenders rather than throw a pass.
“We did some dumb things down the stretch,” he said.
Deja Blue
Bryce Hopkins nearly doubling his previous career high of seven points with 13 seemed like a case of déjà blue to LSU Coach Will Wade.
“This has been a problem for us,” Wade said. “We’ve let guys down the scouting report really hurt us. He did that, and that was certainly disappointing.”
Hopkins came into the game averaging 2.0 points. But he lit a fuse that enabled UK to outscore LSU 48-35 in the second half.
Headband?
For the first time this season, Tshiebwe wore a headband.
He said assistant coaches had joked with him about it.
“If (Calipari) sees you start missing layups, you better take off the headband,” Tshiebwe said the coaches told him.
LSU players teased him about the headband being too small, Tshiebwe said.
Of UK’s support staff, he said, “if they can’t find a big one, I’m not going to wear any more headbands.”
Looking ahead?
Keion Brooks was asked if this Kentucky team was looking ahead to the NCAA Tournament, especially after missing the tournament last year because of the program’s first losing record since 1988-89.
“I don’t think about last year at all,” he said. “So, that’s not something that really crosses my mind.
“I’m not really looking forward to the NCAA Tournament. We’ve got some tough games in front of us, and we all know that.”
As locked in and dialed in as this UK team is, “you don’t have to worry about losing focus at all,” Brooks said.
Looking ahead
Kentucky’s final two “true” road games are at Arkansas and Florida the next two Saturdays.
Those teams have a combined home record of 27-6: Arkansas 15-2 and Florida 12-4.
With a home game against Ole Miss next Tuesday, Kentucky’s final three opponents had a combined record of 7-21 in Quad 1 games going into play Wednesday: Arkansas 4-4, Ole Miss 1-9 and Florida 2-8.
In God’s hands
To explain player consistency, Brooks credited time spent in the gym and a higher power.
“Believe in God first and foremost,” he said, “and just take pressure off yourself.”
Tsheibwe regularly references God.
“Not only me and Oscar,” Brooks said. “We have a lot of guys on the team who are deep in their faith. And they believe in the journey that God has taken us on. We’ve had conversations about it from time to time. … Having people around you like that, it brings nothing but positive energy.”
Six is enough
With Wheeler and Washington sidelined, Davion Mintz started for a second straight game. It was the fourth SEC game he has started.
To be eligible for the SEC’s Sixth Man of the Year award, a player cannot start more than six league games. So, Mintz cannot start in UK’s final three games (at Arkansas, home against Ole Miss and at Florida) and be eligible for the award.
Etc.
In the last four seasons, Kentucky and LSU have the most SEC victories. UK now has 50 in that span while LSU has 46.
This story was originally published February 24, 2022 at 2:07 AM.
