Five things you need to know from Kentucky’s gutty 71-68 win at Mississippi State
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Game day: Kentucky 71, Mississippi State 68
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Wednesday night’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Mississippi State at Starkville, Miss.
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Five things you need to know from Kentucky’s gritty 71-68 win over Mississippi State at Humphrey Coliseum in Starkville:
1. Cats boost NCAA tourney hopes. Kentucky’s victory enhances the Wildcats’ NCAA Tournament aspirations on two fronts.
UK’s win on the road at MSU, which entered the game rated No. 40 in the NET rankings, counts as a Quad 1 victory. It makes Kentucky 2-7 in Quad 1 games in 2022-23.
In Mississippi State, Kentucky also hung a defeat on another NCAA Tournament bubble team. According to Joe Lunardi’s most recent “bracketology” at ESPN.com, MSU was first among the “last four teams in” the NCAA tourney. UK was second among the “first four teams out” of the bracket.
As a result of Wednesday night’s outcome, Kentucky moved to No. 40 in the NET Rankings and Mississippi State dropped to No. 44.
Kentucky hoped to earn a third Quad 1 win Wednesday night from Texas A&M beating Arkansas 62-56 in College Station. Many projected that the win over the Razorbacks (No. 20 in the NET Rankings) would push the Aggies (No. 35) into the Top 30 in the NET. That would have made UK’s 76-67 victory over A&M in Rupp Arena on Jan. 21 a Quad 1 win — and give Kentucky three such victories on the season.
However, Texas A&M only moved up to No. 31 in the revised NET Rankings (a home court win is only considered Quad 1 if it comes against a Top 30 team in the NET). So, for now, UK still has only two Quad 1 wins.
With remaining games vs. Tennessee (No. 3 in the NET Rankings), at Florida (No. 51), Auburn (No. 26), Vanderbilt (No. 89) and at Arkansas (No. 21), UK has four remaining chances at Quad 1 victories — every game but Vandy, which presently would be a Quad 3 win for Kentucky if the Wildcats can get it.
2. Chris Livingston takes a turn as a UK hero. The freshman forward from Akron, Ohio, scored all 13 of his points in the second half.
With UK down 41-38 early in the half two, the 6-foot-6, 220-pound Livingston accounted for 10 straight UK points to flip the game’s momentum.
Livingston scored his first points of the game by cashing a pair of free throws with 16:07 left. He followed that up by making a nifty pass that led to an Antonio Reeves three-pointer that put Kentucky ahead to stay, 43-41.
Getting warmed up, Livingston scored on a layup set up by a feed from Cason Wallace at 15:32, then rained in a three-pointer from the top of the key with 12:41 left to push the Wildcats ahead 48-43.
Livingston wasn’t done. With Mississippi State rallying after falling behind by 13 at 56-43, Livingston drained a 17-foot jumper with 4:29 left to push UK ahead 58-52.
With seven seconds left in the game, Livingston went to the foul line and coolly sank two foul shots to give Kentucky a 68-64 cushion.
The freshman forward finished the best game of his UK career to date with 13 points, five rebounds, three assists, two steals and a blocked shot.
3. Short-handed Cats find balance. Due to injuries, Kentucky was without veteran guards CJ Fredrick (ribs) and Sahvir Wheeler (ankle) for the second straight game. The Wildcats have now played exactly half of their 26 games in 2022-23 with their roster at full strength.
But what was left of UK’s roster circled the wagons and delivered.
Oscar Tshiebwe had 18 points and 11 rebounds. Jacob Toppin had 16 points, Antonio Reeves 14 and Chris Livingston 13.
Cason Wallace, forced to play 38 minutes at the point in an intense battle between two desperate teams, made only one of 13 shots and missed all eight of his three-point attempts. But the 6-4, 193-pound freshman from Dallas doled out 11 assists and made only one turnover.
As Tshiebwe told the UK Radio Network’s Jack Givens after the game “We’ve got a good team, we’ve just got to fight. ... We can still flip this thing around and make a run.”
4. Oscar update. In his two-year Kentucky career, Tshiebwe now has 969 points and 833 rebounds. The 6-9, 255-pound senior passed Bob Burrow (823) for 10th place on UK’s all-time rebounding list.
Rick Robey, in ninth place with 838 career boards, and Sam Bowie, eighth with 843, are next ahead for Tshiebwe as he continues to climb on the all-time UK rebounding chart.
5. Calipari gains on Ray Mears. With UK’s win, John Calipari is now 181-59 in SEC contests as Kentucky head coach. Calipari needs one more league victory to tie and two more to pass former Tennessee head man Ray Mears (182-76 from 1963 through 1977) for fifth all-time in SEC wins.
The top four coaches in all-time SEC victories are: 1. Adolph Rupp 397; 2. Dale Brown 238; 3. Billy Donovan 200; 4. C.M. Newton 195.
This story was originally published February 15, 2023 at 11:07 PM.
