When was the last time you were this encouraged by a Kentucky basketball loss?
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Game day: No. 1 Kansas 89, No. 17 Kentucky 84
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Tuesday night’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Kansas at the United Center in Chicago.
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The kids are all right.
Yes, we are well aware Kentucky basketball lost 89-84 to the No. 1-ranked Kansas Jayhawks on Tuesday night in the Champions Classic. We are aware that John Calipari’s club surrendered a 14-point second-half lead. We were witnesses at the United Center as the Cats missed shot after shot down the stretch.
And yes, in his Chicago homecoming, poor Antonio Reeves missed 18 of his 25 shots from the floor, including 14 of his 17 three-point heaves. Freshman guard D.J. Wagner was 1-of-12. Fellow freshman Justin Edwards was 0-for-6. Each went 0-for-3 from three. After going 9-of-23 from downtown in the first half, the Cats cooled considerably to 3-of-15 in the second.
Exhibit 1 from Ripley’s Believe It or Not: Kentucky took 38 three-point shots, five more than any previous game in the Coach Cal era.
Exhibit 2 from Ripley’s Believe It or Not: Kentucky shot 32.9 percent from the floor and nearly knocked off the No. 1 team in the nation.
Ultimately, Kentucky had no answer for Kansas’ 7-foot-2 smack-talking center Hunter Dickinson, the former Michigan Wolverine who visited UK out of the transfer portal but ended up choosing Lawrence as his change of address. Booed by the Big Blue faithful every time he touched the ball, Dickinson finished with 27 points, 21 rebounds and a smirk.
“We needed him to be a monster,” said Kansas point guard Dajuan Harris, who wasn’t too bad himself.
By season’s end, Kentucky could be a monster.
When was the last time you were this encouraged by a Kentucky basketball loss?
“To come into this environment, with all the bells and whistles, and perform like they did,” Calipari said afterward, “you couldn’t ask for much more.”
Amen to that.
After all, expert roundball observers feared the second game of Tuesday’s doubleheader owned bloodbath potential. (Duke defeated Michigan State 74-65 in the first game.) Surely Kentucky was too young and too short — its trio of 7-foot towers still stuck either on the injured list or in NCAA limbo — to compete with the experience and size Bill Self has put together.
Sure enough, boom, right out of the gate, the Jayhawks flew out to a 9-0 lead. The score was 11-3 Kansas at the first media timeout. At that point, even the most diehard college hoops fan had to be contemplating calling it a (late) night.
“What I was proud of was they fought,” Calipari said of his team.
Fight they did. Before you knew it freshman Robert Dillingham was draining not one, not two, not three, but four consecutive three-pointers for a 33-30 Kentucky lead. When Reeves followed with a three-pointer of his own, the Cats led 36-30.
Reed Sheppard provided a pivotal first-half spark. The heralded freshman nailed a pair of three-pointers and dished a pair of assists, including a three-quarters-length of the floor outlet to a streaking Dillingham for an easy bucket.
Adou Thiero fought all night long. Banging bodies with Kansas’ beef-eaters, the sophomore produced his first career double-double, grabbing 13 rebounds to go with his 16 points.
Kentucky’s fight didn’t disappear in the second half. When that 14-point lead vanished, the Cats didn’t fold. They bounced back to lead 78-72 at the 5:41 mark when Sheppard scored off a drive, then 81-75 with 3:46 left. Alas, down the stretch, Kansas tightened its defense and Kentucky couldn’t coax a single shot to drop.
To that we say: Big whoop.
“When they get (Aaron) Bradshaw back, and their other guys, they’re going to be hard to deal with,” Self said of the Cats.
Right now, they are a ton of fun to watch. Calipari has some things to straighten out. He needs to find a sweet spot for his backcourt rotation. (Better to have too many guards than not enough.) Edwards needs a jump start. When the trees that are Bradshaw, Ugonna Onyenso and Zvonimir Ivisic join the fold, Calipari needs to make sure the Cats remain a team on the run.
Still, despite the defeat, Tuesday night taught us that in fact you can learn more from a loss than a win. And we liked what we learned. Calipari’s kids are going to be just fine.
This story was originally published November 15, 2023 at 10:42 AM.
