Five things you need to know from Kentucky’s 92-64 win over South Carolina
Five things you need to know from the Kentucky Wildcats’ 92-64 win over the South Carolina Gamecocks in an SEC college basketball game at Rupp Arena in downtown Lexington:
1. Davion Mintz goes full-on Tayshaun Prince. One of the most famous individual efforts in UK basketball history occurred on Dec. 9, 2001, when Tayshaun Prince made five straight three-point shots in the first half of Kentucky’s 79-59 win over North Carolina.
In the second half Saturday, Mintz channeled his inner Prince and matched Tayshaun’s feat.
With UK leading 36-28 at halftime, Mintz turbocharged a Wildcats blowout by hitting three-pointers at 18:15, 16:42, 15:31, 15:07 and 14:51.
The final three treys came on consecutive trips down court.
When Mintz’s “Tayshaun Prince homage” ended, Kentucky was up 55-36 and on its way to a much-needed rout.
Putting a flourish on his strong UK season, Mintz finished with 20 points, five rebounds and seven assists.
2. Changed starting lineup. For the last game of the regular season, Kentucky Coach John Calipari altered his normal starting lineup.
Calipari inserted sophomore forward Jacob Toppin, the Rhode Island transfer, into the starting five and moved freshman point guard Devin Askew to the bench.
Toppin had two points, two rebounds, two assists and two turnovers in 23 minutes.
Askew played 19 minutes, and had six points, three rebounds and two assists.
3. Cats lock in their SEC Tournament path. With its victory, Kentucky (9-15, 8-9 SEC) will open SEC tourney play in the first game Thursday that will feature the No. 8 seed vs. the No. 9 seed.
UK’s most-likely opponent will be Mississippi State (14-12, 8-9 SEC entering this afternoon’s game at Auburn), a team the Wildcats have beaten 15 times in a row.
The winner of the 8-9 game will face top seed Alabama (20-6, 15-2 SEC entering this afternoon’s game vs. Georgia) in Friday’s quarterfinals.
4. Momentum for Nashville? The odds of Kentucky going to the SEC Tournament and doing what will be required to extend their season — winning four straight games for the first time this year — are not favorable.
But the blowout of South Carolina was the optimum setup for John Calipari to motivate his team into believing it has a chance to defy the odds and win the SEC tourney.
Besides the scalding-hot shooting from Mintz, Kentucky got strong games from freshmen Brandon Boston (21 points, 6-of-10 three-pointers) and Isaiah Jackson (double-double of 13 points and 10 rebounds) plus Wake Forest transfer Olivier Sarr (15 points, 6-of-10 shooting).
Obviously, South Carolina (6-14, 4-12 SEC) is a bad team. But, as ESPN analyst Jimmy Dykes noted late in Saturday’s telecast, “this was just what the doctor ordered for Kentucky.”
5. Low points. After scoring 21 points Saturday, Brandon Boston finished the regular season as Kentucky’s leading scorer averaging a modest 12 points per game.
It is the lowest scoring average to lead a Kentucky team since Aaron Harrison averaged 11 ppg for the 2014-15 UK squad that finished 38-1.
Of course, that team was so deep, that UK used a two-platoon system for most of the year.
Boston’s 12 ppg is the lowest scoring average to lead a Kentucky team that did not use a platoon system since Rajon Rondo led the 2005-06 Cats at 11.2 ppg.
This story was originally published March 6, 2021 at 2:04 PM.
