Five things you need to know from No. 16 Kentucky’s 69-59 win over Yale
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Game day: No. 16 Kentucky 69, Yale 59
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Yale in Rupp Arena.
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Five things you need to know from the No. 16 Kentucky Wildcats’ 69-59 win over the Yale Bulldogs in NCAA men’s college basketball at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center:
1. Oscar rides to the rescue. With Kentucky trailing its visitors from the Ivy League 35-33 after Yale opened the second half on an 8-0 run, Oscar Tshiebwe did what one would expect from a reigning national player of the year.
The UK big man completely took over the game.
Tshiebwe scored the Wildcats’ next 12 points himself. When the 6-foot-9, 260-pound senior’s one-man run was over, Kentucky led 45-40 and was on its way to a hard-fought victory over the very-well-coached Bulldogs.
With Yale collapsing three, sometimes even four defenders into the paint against Tshiebwe, Oscar nevertheless scored 22 second-half points on an array of clever post moves.
Tshiebwe finished with 28 points, 12 rebounds, two assists, two blocks and two steals. The scoring performance was two points off of his career high, 30, which he achieved three times last season in games at Vanderbilt, at Arkansas and vs. Saint Peter’s in the NCAA Tournament.
In 41 career games that Tshiebwe has played for UK, he has now compiled a points-rebounds double-double in 33 of them.
2. Livingston gets some clock. In recent weeks, Kentucky Coach John Calipari has expressed a desire to find more playing time for freshman forward Chris Livingston. Against Yale, the 6-6, 220-pound product of Akron, Ohio, logged 14 minutes of game time and was productive.
Livingston made three of five shots and scored seven points while also doling out two assists.
The 14 minutes of playing time were the most Livingston has gotten in a competitive game this season. He played 19 minutes each in UK’s first two games of the season, blowout victories over Howard and Duquesne.
3. Cats vs. the Ivies. With its victory, UK is now 17-3 all-time vs. Ivy League teams.
UK is 2-0 vs. Columbia; 1-1 vs. Cornell; 3-1 vs. Dartmouth; 1-0 vs. Harvard; 5-0 vs. Pennsylvania; 3-1 vs. Princeton; and 2-0 vs. Yale. Kentucky has never played Brown.
The Wildcats’ three losses to Ivy League teams are: 30-26 to Princeton on New Year’s Eve, 1926; 47-28 to Dartmouth in the 1942 NCAA Tournament Eastern Region finals; and 92-77 to Cornell on Dec. 28, 1966.
4. Cats extend home-court win streak. Kentucky has now won 25 straight games in Rupp Arena. It is the longest, current home victory streak in the SEC.
UK last lost in Rupp Arena on Feb. 27, 2021, a 71-67 defeat at the hands of Florida.
As Kentucky head coach, John Calipari is now 212-17 in Rupp Arena.
5. Yale is good. Coach James Jones has built the Bulldogs (8-3) into the Ivy League’s top program. The Bulldogs have played in three NCAA Tournaments since 2016, including last season’s.
Yale showed its moxie in Rupp Arena, hitting five of six three-pointers in half two and remaining in threatening position in the game until a 10-2 UK run turned a 57-50 lead into a 67-52 advantage with 4:06 left.
The ‘Cat-mosphere’
▪ On the one-year anniversary of the tornadoes that hit Western Kentucky including Mayfield, the Graves County Junior ROTC color guard presented the colors in Rupp Arena before the national anthem.
▪ The acoUstiKats, the University of Kentucky’s men’s acapella group, performed the national anthem with their usual aplomb.
▪ During the pregame, John Calipari presented Sahvir Wheeler with a basketball to commemorate the senior point guard going over the 1,000-point mark in his college career. Wheeler scored 644 points in his two seasons at Georgia; entering Saturday’s game, he had 364 points at UK for a college total of 1,008.
▪ The UK men’s soccer team, which went undefeated in the regular season; won the Sun Belt Conference; and reached the NCAA Tournament round of 16, was recognized on the court during the game’s first television timeout.
▪ Yale Coach James Jones looked dapper in a blue suit. I, for one, kind of miss the pre-pandemic standard of coaches dressing like professionals.
▪ Kentucky’s women’s indoor track and field team was recognized for its third-place finishes in both last season’s indoor and outdoor NCAA Championships.
▪ At halftime, Nashville Sports Council President and CEO Scott Ramsey presented a small group of UK football players with a guitar to recognize Kentucky’s invitation to play Iowa in the Music City Bowl on New Year’s Eve.
This story was originally published December 10, 2022 at 3:07 PM.
