UK players eager to see U of L on the court. ‘Like big brother, little brother’
The war of words began before Kentucky had even taken the basketball court for its final tuneup for the Louisville game.
Following the Cardinals’ blowout victory over Jackson State last week, U of L forward Kasean Pryor fired the first shot. As Pryor was wrapping up the winning press conference, he looked ahead to Kentucky’s visit to the Yum Center.
“We’ll see you guys Tuesday,” he said. “After a win.”
As Pryor walked away from the podium, he doubled down by directing an expletive at UK.
On Monday morning, U of L coach Pat Kelsey was asked about that moment, which instantly lit social media aflame and made its way to the Kentucky locker room soon enough.
“Have you ever met Kasean?” Kelsey said, facetiously, to laughter from the U of L media corps. “Kasean is very much of a free spirit. And I love him for it, because that’s who he is at his core. He’s unapologetically himself. He’ll come in with pink socks and the moonboots and some of the wildest stuff that you’ve ever seen in your life. That’s Kasean.
“And KP’s the type that — he loves the moment. He loves the smoke. He loves all of that. He loves the banter. He loves the social media stuff.”
Kelsey then said that he “hates” social media. He also implied that he probably could’ve done without Pryor’s comments, noting that the senior forward had just played in his first game since last November, completing the grueling recovery from a torn ACL that cut his season short.
The Louisville coach said he wasn’t even thinking about the possibility that Pryor could end up in the media room after that Jackson State game, five nights before UK was coming to town.
“I should have grabbed him and tackled him and reminded him that we’re from the Skip Prosser school of ‘Praise your opponents, praise your teammates,’” Kelsey said, a reference to his own head coach at Xavier and the man who gave him his first college job at Wake Forest.
“But that’s KP, and that’s who he is,” Kelsey concluded. “And I love him for it.”
Kentucky’s players have done a little talking, too.
UK point guard Jaland Lowe claimed he hadn’t heard Pryor’s jab following the Cats’ win over Valparaiso on Friday night. Surrounded primarily by fan bloggers looking for social-media soundbites, Lowe mostly stuck to the script — saying the Cats would “save our chirping” for gameday — before dropping a “when we win” comment with a knowing grin behind it.
Mark Pope didn’t talk to reporters Monday — the UK coach is sticking to the normal schedule, which means his weekly press conference will happen Thursday — but a couple of Wildcats did meet with local media members to preview the Louisville game.
Otega Oweh, who scored 17 points in a 93-85 victory over the Cards last season — the first edition of the rivalry with Pope and Kelsey in charge — reflected on his favorite moment from that game. It came when Brandon Garrison pursued a loose ball with a little too much zeal, getting called for a foul and then swallowed up by a sea of red on the Louisville bench.
“I would say BG, when you know, he was in the fire — in their bench — and we were just all around them,” Oweh said. “I just like environments like that. And I feel like he was in there with ten toes. So that was my favorite one.”
Garrison was smiling as he thought back to that moment, too.
“Yeah, just, you know, stuff happened,” he said Friday night. “I wasn’t trying to do nothing purposely, but it’s just part of the rivalry. The game’s gonna get like that sometimes.”
That situation could’ve gotten out of control. But it dissipated with no need for any extra calls beyond the personal foul against Garrison, who was led away from the scrum as Pope — who sprinted over from the UK sideline — Kelsey and others tried to break things up.
Looking back nearly a year later, Oweh said he wasn’t surprised it didn’t turn into something more.
“Nah, I mean, it was smart that they didn’t escalate it,” he said, his expression saying he knew what he was doing with this quote. “It’s like big brother, little brother. That was a smart decision.”
Beyond that, the Cats and Cards have kept the focus largely on the game itself.
Kentucky comes into this one ranked No. 9 in the country. Louisville is No. 12 in the new AP Top 25 poll, the first time the Cardinals have been ranked for the rivalry game since 2019.
Both teams have legitimate Final Four aspirations. And both are excited for this early season test.
Lowe, who made his return from a shoulder injury in the win over Valpo on Friday night, had been sidelined since Oct. 17 with that ailment. Asked if it was personally important for him to get back in time for this rivalry game, UK’s point guard — typically a young man of many words — was succinct.
“Definitely,” he said.
Freshman center Malachi Moreno — a central Kentucky native who grew up closely studying this rivalry — refused to say anything that could fuel the other side.
“I’m a Kentucky boy, but I live by the standard of Kentucky basketball, and that’s not to let the outside noise kind of dictate our emotions,” he said. “It’s just to make sure we keep the main thing the main thing. And that’s winning (NCAA championship) number nine, and that’s playing as a team.”
Moreno did offer up some favorite UK-Louisville memories.
There was the 2019 game in Rupp, with Ashton Hagans throwing down a dunk in the final moments to put an exclamation point on the Cats’ overtime victory over No. 3 Louisville. There was Willie Cauley-Stein’s steal, dunk and staredown of Montrezl Harrell in the 2014-15 edition. And there was last year’s “Lamont Butler Game” — with Moreno heading straight from one of his own high school games to see Butler decimate the Cardinals in Rupp.
There have been a lot more good times for the Cats than the Cards in recent years. UK was won 14 of the past 17 meetings, dating back to John Calipari’s first season in Lexington. And Moreno has seen much more winning than losing. UK is 15-5 vs. Louisville in his lifetime. Two of those losses came when the 7-footer was a toddler.
Last year was Collin Chandler’s first taste of the rivalry. The Utah native was surprised at the magnitude of it. He was also taken aback by the Rupp atmosphere.
“What surprised me was I looked around in the game and there was no red at all,” he said. “It was very one-sided last year. I would assume that there’s going to be a lot more blue in Louisville than there was red in Rupp. So I’m excited for that part — playing Louisville with actual Louisville fans there.”
As Kelsey said, Pryor welcomes the smoke, and he had to have known he was going to get plenty with those postgame comments last week. Kentucky’s players have made it clear that they can’t wait to get to the Yum Center on Tuesday night either.
Oweh talked on the eve of the game about how much he enjoys playing in road atmospheres. He said he relishes in trying to silence the opposing fans hurling insults his way. If that’s the case, his first visit to Louisville shouldn’t disappoint.
Asked if he’d seen the talk beforehand — a reference to Pryor’s comments — the UK star acknowledged that he had. “Yeahhhhh,” Oweh replied.
And his reaction?
“I can’t wait to see ’em.”
