‘Tougher than us.’ UK basketball uses team rebounding approach in win over North Carolina.
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Game day: No. 14 Kentucky 87, No. 9 North Carolina 83
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and North Carolina in the CBS Sports Classic at State Farm Arena in Atlanta
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Kentucky basketball now has size.
Saturday brought the season debut of 7-foot sophomore center Ugonna Onyenso, as he joins freshman Aaron Bradshaw as another true big man that head coach John Calipari can utilize.
While stature has unquestionably now entered the equation for Kentucky and its possible lineup combinations, that’s not what directly led to a strong rebounding effort by the Cats in Saturday’s 87-83 CBS Sports Classic win over North Carolina in Atlanta.
The Wildcats crushed the Tar Heels on the glass, to the tune of a plus-10 rebounding margin, 42-32. But only four of those boards came from Bradshaw (three) and Onyenso (one).
Instead of the 7-footers, it was Kentucky’s backcourt players that led the way.
The freshman trio of Justin Edwards, Reed Sheppard and D.J. Wagner each had six rebounds, while fifth-year player Antonio Reeves had four himself.
Perhaps the most telling statistic from UK’s balanced rebounding effort? Kentucky was credited with seven team rebounds in the win, a season-high total.
North Carolina head coach Hubert Davis said this cost the Tar Heels the game.
“Kentucky was tougher than us in the trenches,” Davis said. “In order to win games like that, you have to win the battle in the paint, whether it’s rebounding, loose balls, finishing around the basket. You have to win those individual battles, and we did not, in terms of rebounding, and that’s why we lost the game.”
Throughout the season, Calipari has championed the change that would come when his 7-footers got on the court.
One of them, freshman Zvonimir Ivisic, is still waiting in the wings pending NCAA clearance, and Calipari made sure to reference this again in his postgame remarks Saturday.
But it’s clear that even without a full array of frontcourt players — and even with those who are playing not putting up gaudy rebounding totals — Kentucky has developed a mindset conducive to crashing the glass and gathering loose balls.
“I’m telling you, that is a veteran team that came in with one idea: They were going to be physical with us,” Calipari said of UNC. “That’s what they did. You know what, we held our own.”
UK is 5-0 this season when winning the rebounding battle. Saturday’s triumph on the glass was punctuated by an 18-6 offensive rebounding advantage that produced a 15-6 edge in second-chance points.
Another indicator of Kentucky’s penchant for swarming to loose balls is the balanced nature of UK’s rebounding totals this season: Seven UK players are averaging between 4.1 and 6.2 per game.
This group includes everyone from significantly undersized guard Rob Dillingham (listed by UK as 6-foot-3) to Tre Mitchell, the fifth-year, 6-foot-9 forward who spent most of the early season deputizing as Kentucky’s center while Bradshaw and Onyenso were still on the mend.
When asked about the changes that have come with Bradshaw (who made his first college start Saturday) on the court, Mitchell said the main difference has been the ability to switch on defense.
“It’s great to have (Bradshaw) back. … It really gives us all a lot more freedom out there,” said Mitchell, who collected five rebounds against UNC.
Kentucky made only three more shots than North Carolina on Saturday night (30-27), but the Cats attempted 15 more shots in total, largely thanks to their rebounding edge.
Better shooting performances will obviously be needed from the likes of Edwards (3-for-9) and Reeves (2-for-9) if the Cats are to make getting those rebounds pay off in the long run.
But the sample size against top-level competition shows that Kentucky can put itself in a position to do so.
UK’s first test against an elite opponent this season ended in a narrow November loss to Kansas in the Champions Classic in Chicago. But without Bradshaw and Onyenso, the Wildcats only lost the rebounding battle by three (45-42).
A signature home win against Miami saw the Hurricanes win the rebounding battle by six over the Wildcats, 35-29, but a dominant UK offensive performance rendered that statistic irrelevant.
And on nights like Saturday, when the Kentucky offense (41.7% from the field and 34.8% on 3-pointers) isn’t shooting lights out, these Wildcats showed the capacity to keep collecting the ball until it does go through the basket.
This story was originally published December 17, 2023 at 8:46 AM.
