Why is Kentucky basketball so much better right now? Bruce Pearl explains the evolution.
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Game day: Kentucky 86, Auburn 54
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Auburn in Rupp Arena.
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Soundly beaten and sorely disappointed, Bruce Pearl was making his way to the postgame press conference in Rupp Arena on Saturday night when he realized that he’d taken a wrong turn. The stairs to get to the microphone were on the opposite side of the room.
The Auburn basketball coach turned toward the assembled members of the media with a smirk on his face and a resigned tone in his voice. And then he summed up the Tigers’ night.
“I can’t even get up on the podium the right way,” Pearl said.
Indeed, pretty much nothing had gone as planned for Auburn over the final 22 minutes or so of the game Pearl was there to talk about. A contest that was fairly even with halftime nearing turned into a laugher in a hurry. The final score: Kentucky 86, Auburn 54.
A 32-point victory that wasn’t even that close.
The Wildcats earned their fourth consecutive win Saturday to improve to 20-9 overall and 11-5 in Southeastern Conference play.
The question two weeks ago? Will Kentucky make the NCAA Tournament?
The question two days ago? What seed will the Wildcats end up with?
The question now? How far can these Cats go?
A UK basketball team that has spent the past few weeks talking about “winning each day” and focusing on the moment surely now has just about everyone who’s followed them looking a lot further into the future than that. Is this Kentucky season — not far from desolation just two weeks ago — now at the point where the Cats need to make sure they don’t get too high on their own success?
“I think we needed this game, for real,” senior guard Antonio Reeves said. “We’ve never dominated like that before. I feel like this game could just take us to the top. I don’t think we need to calm ourselves down. I don’t believe that.”
UK has been in a similar spot before. The Cats’ season was on life support in early January — a terrible home loss to lowly South Carolina could have been the death blow — but Kentucky rallied to a win at No. 5 Tennessee a few days later, and that turned into six straight victories in league play.
Then they lost two more. One to Arkansas by 15 points at home. One in Athens to a Georgia team near the bottom of the SEC standings. Perhaps one step away from losing the season.
Since their NCAA Tournament bubble nearly burst, these Cats have come together once more. Hard-fought road wins at Mississippi State and Florida. Double-digit home victories over Tennessee and Auburn.
John Calipari and his Kentucky players have talked over the past two weeks — and, really, for much longer than that — about these Cats finding their individual roles, buying in, and how that would be the key to unlocking team success.
From afar, Pearl has noticed as much on his own.
How is this UK team different from the one that scuffled its way through most of the season?
“Well, I mean, they’re obviously really comfortable in their roles,” Pearl said.
He called freshman Cason Wallace “a difference-maker” running the point guard position, praising his ability to create for others, finish himself and defend the perimeter.
On this night, Wallace had 19 points, nine assists and four steals.
“I don’t know many freshmen that are built like that,” Pearl added. “Great player. Great size. Great tempo.”
The Auburn coach called Reeves a “great shooter.”
Against the Tigers, the senior guard made eight of 13 shots, four of seven three-point attempts and dropped 18 of his 21 points in the second half, sparking the Cats’ wild scoring flurry.
The adjectives Pearl used to describe Jacob Toppin: big, strong, bouncy and physical.
Toppin’s line: 13 points and a career-high 12 rebounds. UK’s coaches have long implored the senior forward to mix it up more in the paint. In his 111th college basketball game, he fouled out for just the second time.
Oscar Tshiebwe had 22 points and 17 rebounds. That’s nothing new.
“Tshiebwe’s the most physical player in the game,” Pearl declared.
Freshman forward Chris Livingston spent much of the day in foul trouble — and finished with just six points and two rebounds — but his transformation over the past few weeks has arguably been as great as any Wildcat’s, and for UK to dominate so thoroughly on one of his off nights is just another testament to the many ways this Kentucky team can come at you.
“So, yeah, they’re playing really well together,” Pearl concluded.
With less than two minutes left in the first half, UK led Auburn 32-29. The Cats then scored eight straight to take an 11-point lead into the locker room. The Tigers scored the opening basket of the second half, and their day ended there.
Kentucky went on a 9-0 run to make it an 18-point game. Four minutes later, the UK lead was 21 points. Five minutes after that, it was 29 points. Four minutes after that, it was 40. Forty.
The Wildcats’ previous best winning margin over an SEC opponent was 16 points at Vanderbilt last month. On a few other occasions — including just three days earlier at Florida — the Cats got up double digits, seemed on the verge of a blowout, then let the opponent hang around.
Not on this night.
“We were due for one,” Wallace said with a smile.
According to UK’s freshman point guard — a 19-year-old who has emerged as a team leader — this recent transformation hasn’t been so much about the Cats finding their roles as it has been about finally recognizing everyone else’s.
“We already went down the line on whose role is whose and what we each bring to the table,” he said of team meetings earlier in the season. “But us actually locking in and doing it is what makes the difference.”
Guys are playing within their own role, Wallace said, but they’re relying on their teammates to do their jobs, as well. Instead of five guys doing what they think they’re supposed to be doing, it’s one team playing as a unit.
“The biggest thing is you’ve got to trust all your teammates are on the same page so that you can be a risk taker, you can make some plays, you can be aggressive — because your teammates are behind you,” Calipari said. “And they also know and trust that whatever the game plan is, everybody’s locked in. Our shootarounds right now are 30 minutes. Thirty. These dudes are locked in. Bang. And then we go.”
Bang they went Saturday night, and they left Auburn in the dust.
What did they learn about themselves in the process?
“That we can lock in,” Wallace said. “And if we lock in, we’re a hard team to beat.”
Next game
Vanderbilt at Kentucky
When: 7 p.m. Wednesday
TV: SEC Network
Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1
Records: Vanderbilt 16-13 (9-7 SEC); Kentucky 20-9 (11-5)
Series: Kentucky leads 155-47
Last meeting: Kentucky won 69-53 on Jan. 24 in Nashville
This story was originally published February 25, 2023 at 8:58 PM.
