Instant analysis: Who’s up, who’s down after Kentucky’s win over Tennessee
Instant analysis from No. 5 Kentucky’s 86-69 win over No. 1 Tennessee:
How the game was won
No. 5 Kentucky opened the second half with a 14-0 run to turn a 37-31 halftime lead over No. 1 Tennessee into a 51-31 advantage and the Wildcats emphatically ended the Volunteers’ 19-game winning streak.
Game balls
1. PJ Washington. In a head-to-head showdown with presumptive SEC Player of the Year favorite Grant Williams (16 points, eight rebounds), the Kentucky power forward (23 points, five rebounds) was the decisive victor.
2. Keldon Johnson. That first-half run of three-point shooting by the UK swingman (19 points, 3-for-6 treys) harkened back to Tayshaun Prince’s famous performance vs. North Carolina.
3. Ashton Hagans. It’s this simple: When the Kentucky point guard plays well the Cats are elite. When he doesn’t, UK struggles. Hagans played better than “well” (nine points, seven assists, two steals, one turnover) vs. UT.
4. Tyler Herro. Raise your hand if you predicted the Kentucky freshman guard would have a double-double with 13 rebounds (and 15 points) against the No. 1 team in the country.
5. Reid Travis. The muscle and maturity of the Stanford graduate transfer helped Kentucky mostly push Grant Williams off the low block. Travis’ 11 points, eight rebounds and two blocked shots were helpful, too.
6. Rupp Arena fans. With a Rupp renovation set to downsize the arena to some 20,500 seats for next season, this might have been the final 24,000-plus “big-game Rupp” crowd ever. If so, it was vintage. The crowd of 24,467 rocked Rupp.
Reasons for worry
1. March 2. The Cats will face a super-charged Thompson-Boling Arena and an aroused Tennessee team for the rematch.
Key number(s)
Seven and 15. With Kentucky’s victory, the Wildcats are now 7-15 all-time in games against teams ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press men’s college basketball ratings. UK is now 1-1 against Tennessee when the Volunteers are ranked No. 1.
The Cat-mosphere
1. There were more orange-clad Tennessee fans in the Rupp Arena crowd than one normally sees for visiting teams in Rupp Arena.
2. As she always does, Marlana VanHoose rocked the national anthem.
3. UK introduced Pendleton County star Dontaie Allen, a 2019-20 Kentucky men’s basketball signee, to the Rupp Arena crowd. Allen is the first in-state player the Wildcats have signed since Derek Willis and Dominique Hawkins in the Class of 2013.
4. This time, when they showed Joe B. Hall on the Rupp Arena video boards, the former UK coach realized it. Joe B. smiled and waved to the crowd as it roared.
5. UK recognized its 1988 and ‘89 women’s cross country teams at halftime. The 1988 team won the NCAA championship and the ‘89 team finished second in the nation.
6. Wenyen Gabriel, Isaac Humphries, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Kevin Knox, Malik Monk and Alex Poythress were the “Y.”
Up next
No. 5 Kentucky (21-4, 10-2 SEC) will face Missouri (12-12, 3-9 SEC) at 9 p.m. (EST) Tuesday at the Mizzou Arena (capacity 15,061) on the campus of the University of Missouri in Columbia.
Coach Cuonzo Martin’s Tigers lost 75-65 at Mississippi on Saturday.
Kentucky leads the all-time series with Missouri 11-1. The two teams split two games last season with each winning on its home court.
Know your foe
1. Missouri Coach Cuonzo Martin is 2-5 against Kentucky as a head coach — 1-1 at Missouri and 1-4 at Tennessee (2011-12 through 2013-14).
2. Mizzou’s most notable restult so far in 2018-19 came on Jan. 26 against LSU. Missouri held a 70-56 lead with 2:14 left in the game only to see LSU close the game on a 15-1 run to force overtime. LSU then won 86-80.
3. Mark Smith, the class of 2017 Illinois high school basketball star who was on Kentucky’s recruiting radar, is Missouri’s second-leading scorer (12.6 points, 5.5 rebounds, made 48 of 101 three-pointers). The 6-foot-5 Smith initially signed with Illinois, but transferred after averaging 5.8 points in 19 games last season. Smith received a transfer waiver from the NCAA allowing him to play immediately for Missouri without sitting out the normal one-year required of transfers.
Smith went scoreless in eight minutes at Ole Miss in his first contest back after missing six games due to an ankle injury.
This story was originally published February 16, 2019 at 10:52 PM.
