Five things you need to know from Kentucky’s 76-67 win against Texas A&M
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Game day: Kentucky 76, Texas A&M 67
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Texas A&M at Rupp Arena in Lexington.
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Five things you need to know from Kentucky’s 76-67 win over Texas A&M in SEC men’s college basketball at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center:
1. Cats can win multiple ways. In Kentucky’s 85-71 win over Georgia on Tuesday night, Bulldogs Coach Mike White made the decision to, more or less, let Oscar Tshiebwe “get his” and try to stop everybody else.
As a result, Tshiebwe had the game of his life, 37 points and 24 rebounds, to lead UK to victory.
On Saturday, Texas A&M’s Buzz Williams utilized the opposite strategic plan. The Aggies double-teamed Tshiebwe every time they could, often with burly twin pillars Julius Marble (6-foot-9, 245-pounds) and Henry Coleman III (6-8, 245).
As a result, A&M — aided by foul problems limiting Tshiebwe to only 29 minutes of action — held the UK star to seven points and only five field-goal attempts. (The relentless Tshiebwe still grabbed 17 rebounds).
However, Texas A&M’s emphasis on stopping Oscar left ample open shots for Kentucky’s perimeter players.
UK fired 32 three-point shots, the second-highest figure of the John Calipari coaching era. The Wildcats did not burn the Rupp Arena nets, but made 11 treys and showed they have enough balance to beat a good team with Tshiebwe not scoring in double figures.
2. Antonio Reeves is becoming UK’s go-to perimeter scorer. The transfer from Illinois State was the main reason that Texas A&M’s “stop Oscar at all costs” strategy failed. The 6-foot-5, 205-pound senior made eight of 17 field goals, five of 11 treys and set a UK career high with 23 points.
With Kentucky clinging to a 65-61 lead in the final 2:30 of the game, Reeves scored on a bank shot off a left-handed drive at 2:01 and a runner in the lane at 1:32 that kept the Wildcats in control.
Over UK’s past five games, Reeves is averaging 17 points a game.
3. Sahvir’s role. Sahvir Wheeler logged only eight minutes of court time. Kentucky’s deposed, formerly starting point guard did not take a shot, had two assists and a turnover.
UK was minus-7 points in the eight minutes Wheeler was on the court.
I feel sorry for Wheeler, a good, if flawed, player whose role on the 2022-23 Wildcats is being reduced midseason as John Calipari seems to have finally agreed with the stats gurus that Kentucky plays better with freshman Cason Wallace at the point and outside-shooting threats Antonio Reeves and CJ Fredrick logging more minutes on the floor together.
Hopefully, Wheeler hangs in and finds a way to impact winning for Kentucky down the stretch.
4. Calipari movin’ on up. With the victory, John Calipari now has 177 SEC victories (177-57) as UK head man. Calipari needs one more win to tie and two more to pass former LSU head man Harry Rabenhorst (178-117 from 1932-33 through 1956-57) for sixth all-time in victories in Southeastern Conference games.
Calipari is five league wins from tying and six from passing ex-Tennessee coach Ray Mears (182-76 from 1963 through 1977) for fifth on the all-time SEC wins list.
5. Buzz still winless vs. UK. With Saturday’s defeat, Texas A&M head man Buzz Williams fell to 0-4 vs. Kentucky in his coaching career. Williams is 0-3 vs. the Cats with the Aggies and went 0-1 against UK as Virginia Tech head man.
How all the current SEC head men have fared vs. Kentucky (in order of total wins):
▪ Rick Barnes, Tennessee, 11-10 (10-8 as UT head man, 0-1 at Texas, 1-1 at Clemson);
▪ Bruce Pearl, Auburn, 10-16 (6-7 as Auburn coach, 4-9 at Tennessee);
▪ Mike White, Georgia, 4-11 (0-1 as Georgia coach, 4-10 at Florida);
▪ Nate Oats, Alabama, 3-4 (3-3 as Bama head man, 0-1 at Buffalo);
▪ Eric Musselman, Arkansas, 2-1;
▪ Dennis Gates, Missouri, 1-0;
▪ Lamont Paris, South Carolina, 1-0;
▪ Kermit Davis Jr., Mississippi, 1-3;
▪ Todd Golden, Florida 0-0;
▪ Chris Jans, Mississippi State, 0-0;
▪ Matt McMahon, LSU, 0-1;
▪ Buzz Williams, Texas A&M 0-4 (0-3 as A&M coach, 0-1 at Virginia Tech);
▪ Jerry Stackhouse, Vanderbilt 0-7.
This story was originally published January 21, 2023 at 4:42 PM.
