Five things you need to know from Kentucky’s stunning 80-73 loss to UNC Wilmington
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Game day: UNC Wilmington 80, No. 12 Kentucky 73
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and UNC Wilmington in Rupp Arena.
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Five things you need to know from No. 12 Kentucky’s 80-73 loss to UNC Wilmington in NCAA men’s college basketball at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center:
1. Takayo Siddle’s unimaginable Rupp Arena double. On Nov. 7, 2007, UNC Wilmington coach Takayo Siddle was a junior guard on the 2007-08 Gardner-Webb team that came to Rupp Arena and delivered a stunning 84-68 upset of Kentucky in Billy Gillispie’s second game as UK head man.
On Saturday, Siddle completed an unthinkable “Rupp Arena” double by coaching the Seahawks to an 80-73 upset of John Calipari’s No. 12 Cats that no one saw coming.
Kentucky had no defensive answer for Trazarien White, a 6-foot-7 junior wing, who went for a double-double with 27 points and 10 boards and made 9 of 16 shots.
Siddle’s game plan of having his players repeatedly drive the ball at Kentucky worked to perfection, as UK struggled to stay in front of the Seahawks and does not have rim protection to erase defensive mistakes.
2. Cats do not have enough players making shots. Playing without injured point guard D.J. Wagner, Kentucky never really got into an offensive rhythm.
Other than Reed Sheppard (25 points on 9-of-17 shooting in his first career start) and Antonio Reeves (14 points on 5-of-9 shooting before fouling out), UK did not have any shot makers on the floor Saturday.
Particularly struggling were UK freshmen Rob Dilingham (1-of-9) and Justin Edwards (4-of-14). Even the normally reliable Tre Mitchell had only two made field goals while taking only five shots.
3. Aaron Bradshaw’s debut. The 7-foot-1, 226-pound freshman had not seen action as a collegian while recovering from a foot injury.
Bradshaw was inserted into the game for the first time with 15:01 left in the first half. The Camden, New Jersey, product scored his first bucket on a dunk with 13:36 left in the first half.
Later, he added a free throw and finished his college debut with three points, two rebounds and a blocked shot in 11 minutes of playing time.
4. UK coaches vs. schools for whom they played. Since the Adolph Rupp coaching era began in 1930, John Calipari is only the fourth Kentucky head man to face a team representing a school where he went to college.
Calipari averaged 1.2 points a game for UNC Wilmington in 1978-79 before he ultimately transferred and finished his college playing career at Clarion (now Pennsylvania Western University Clarion).
In games for UK coaches vs. their college alma maters, Rupp went 4-0 vs. Kansas; Rick Pitino went 4-1 against Massachusetts; Tubby Smith went 3-0 against High Point.
Now, Calipari is 0-1 as Kentucky coach against UNC Wilmington. (he also has led UK to two exhibition wins over Clarion).
5. All-time college hoops wins race. Kentucky’s loss to UNC Wilmington cost the Cats a game in the all-time wins chase with Kansas.
You will recall that Kansas passed Kentucky for the all-time lead in victories during the 2022 NCAA Tournament and finished that 2021-22 season with a 2,357 to 2,353 advantage over UK.
Last season, the Jayhawks (28-8) added six more victories to their all-time lead over the Wildcats (22-12) and ended 2022-23 10 games up, 2,385 to 2,375, on the Cats.
This offseason, however, the NCAA ordered KU to vacate 15 victories from the 2017-18 season after a Kansas player was retroactively ruled to be ineligible. Those vacated victories returned the all-time wins lead to Kentucky.
On the official ledger, UK entered this year with a 2,375 to 2,370 edge over KU.
However, Kentucky’s loss to UNCW coupled with the 69-65 Kansas win over Connecticut on Friday night pulls Bill Self’s Jayhawks within four of again catching UK for the all-time wins lead.
Presently, UK stands at 2,381 wins to 2,377 for KU.
The ‘Cat-mosphere’
Kentucky played its first game on the much-anticipated new Rupp Arena playing surface. The general reviews of the new floor — highlighted by the interlocking “UK” at midcourt over an outline of the commonwealth of Kentucky — seemed positive.
One interesting aspect, the shade of blue on the court looked a little darker to my eye than what I think of as “Kentucky blue.”
Don’t think that is the reason the new court has started out its run 0-1.
▪ “Big Blue Santa Claus” made an appearance during the first television timeout. He brought a “T-shirt cannon.”
▪ Johnny Cox, one of the stars of the “Fiddlin’ Five,” Kentucky’s 1958 NCAA championship team, was “the Y.”
This story was originally published December 2, 2023 at 6:27 PM.
