Five things you need to know from Kentucky’s 100-60 rout of Robert Morris
Five things you need to know from the Kentucky Wildcats’ 100-60 blowout win over the Robert Morris Colonials in UK’s 2021-22 regular-season home opener at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center:
1. Oscar Tshiebwe is off to a monster start. After the 6-foot-9, 255-pound West Virginia transfer began his Kentucky career with a 17 points/20 rebounds double-double in the Wildcats’ 79-71 loss to Duke on Tuesday night, it was more of the same in his first regular-season game in Rupp Arena.
The product of Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo, dominated visiting RMU in the paint. Tshiebwe went for 14 points and 20 boards.
At UK’s preseason Media Day, Tshiebwe essentially said he expected to get every rebound.
Turns out, he wasn’t kidding.
2. TyTy Washington bounced back. Kentucky’s prized freshman guard had a rough go — 3-of-14 field goals, 0-of-2 treys — in Madison Square Garden in the Champions Classic loss to Duke.
Obviously, Robert Morris isn’t anywhere close to the competitive level of Duke, but it was nevertheless nice to see the Phoenix product come back and play well.
On Friday night, Washington took good shots, hit five of 10, and finished with 10 points, three rebounds and three assists in a solid showing.
3. Sahvir Wheeler’s enhanced ball security. There was obviously much to like about Sahvir Wheeler’s UK debut. The dynamic Georgia transfer hit Duke with 16 points and 10 assists.
However, the 5-9, 180-pound point guard also turned it over a robust seven times in New York City.
Because Wheeler was a tad turnover-prone last season (averaging 4.4 a game) at Georgia, it was a concern.
Well, obviously, Robert Morris isn’t anywhere close to the competitive level of Duke, but it was nevertheless nice from the UK perspective to see Wheeler dole out 11 assists without losing the ball even one time vs. the Colonials.
4. The Daimion Collins hype train is off and rolling. There is a reason why the willowy, 6-9, 202-pound freshman ignites the imagination of NBA front offices.
The immense potential of Collins had Rupp Arena rocking Friday night.
In an electrifying first-half segment, the UK freshman scored on an alley-oop dunk, followed in a Dontaie Allen missed three-pointer and then blocked a Robert Morris three-point try on successive trips.
That was just a tease for the one-man slam-dunk show Collins put on late in the game, throwing down a pair of transition dunks that brought a sleepy Rupp crowd to a roar.
In 21 minutes, Collins finished with 14 points on 7-of-8 shooting with six rebounds, four blocked shots and three assists.
5. Home-opening success. With the victory, Kentucky is now 42-4 in the Rupp Arena era (since 1976-77) in its first home game of a season.
Can you recall the losses?
▪ Eddie Sutton’s final UK team, headed for a scandal-impacted 13-19 slog in 1988-89, lost its first home game to Northwestern State 85-82.
▪ In 2000-01, Penn State upset No. 22 Kentucky 73-68 behind a combined 57 points from the hot-shooting Crispin brothers, Joe (31 points) and Jon (26).
▪ The following season, Western Kentucky 7-footer Chris Marcus went for a double-double (13 points, 10 rebounds) to lead the Hilltoppers to a 64-52 upset of Tubby Smith’s No. 4-ranked Wildcats.
▪ Finally, in 2008-09, what became Billy Gillipsie’s final year as top Cat got off to a rocky start when VMI outgunned UK 111-103.
This story was originally published November 12, 2021 at 8:57 PM.
