UK just showed you the secret ingredient that gives Cats a chance to be special
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Game day: No. 14 Kentucky 87, No. 9 North Carolina 83
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and North Carolina in the CBS Sports Classic at State Farm Arena in Atlanta
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By the time Kentucky reached the 2023 NCAA Tournament round of 32, John Calipari’s Wildcats had five players they could count on. When two of those five combined to shoot 2-for-22 against Kansas State, the UK season was doomed.
On Saturday, before a sellout crowd of 17,058 that gave the CBS Sports Classic showdown between No. 14 Kentucky and No. 9 North Carolina an Elite Eight feel, the 2023-24 Cats showed why they can author a very different fate come March.
Riding extraordinary balance in multiple categories, the youthful Wildcats out-toughed and out-executed a more experienced North Carolina roster down the stretch and scored an 87-83 win at the State Farm Arena.
“The upside of this team is really up,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said of his freshman-heavy roster. “Let’s see if we can get there.”
On a night when North Carolina guard RJ Davis continued his early-season All-America campaign with 27 points and former Notre Dame sharpshooter Cormac Ryan righted what had previously been an errant jumper to pump in 20 points, UK won because it got meaningful contributions in multiple areas from players up and down its roster.
You want balance?
Of the nine players Kentucky played, eight scored between seven and 17 points.
You want more balance?
The eight 3-pointers UK hit were spread among seven players.
There’s even more.
UK (8-2) pounded UNC (7-3) on the boards, winning the rebounding battle 42-32 and the second-chance points category 15-6.
In so doing, Kentucky had seven players who claimed between three and six rebounds.
“Kentucky was tougher than us in the trenches,” North Carolina coach Hubert Davis said. “In order to win games like this, you have to win the battle in the paint.”
Unlike last year, when UK was heavily reliant on one (very good) player in Oscar Tshiebwe and the Wildcats lacked enough productive depth to overcome off games from any of its key contributors, this season’s Cats can unleash production in multiple areas from players up and down their roster.
“We know that the dude to the left and to the right of us is an elite basketball player,” Kentucky forward Tre Mitchell said.
Last month, with a lead at the final television timeout and a chance to score a calling-card victory over then-No. 1 Kansas in the Champions Classic, UK couldn’t close it out and instead suffered a gut-wrenching 89-84 loss.
On Saturday, after North Carolina’s Armando Bacot capped a Tar Heels charge by sinking two free throws with 5:15 left in the game to push UNC ahead 72-71 in a game in which it had trailed throughout, Kentucky refused to let another potential signature win get away.
The Cats countered with — you guessed it — balance.
An Aaron Bradshaw putback, on a play that was all exertion, gave UK the lead again at 73-72.
Rob Dillingham then scored two straight buckets to push the Kentucky lead to five. After North Carolina’s Harrison Ingram answered with an 8-footer, UK’s Antonio Reeves had a response of his own with a 15-foot jumper.
With RJ Davis keeping Carolina close in the final minutes with his shot-making, D.J. Wagner and Dillingham both broke down Tar Heels defenders one-on-one and scored in the lane to keep UK in the lead.
The game finally came down to Bradshaw and Dillingham making just enough free throws to seal the victory.
You will note that the Cats got points from five players under game-deciding pressure.
Noting how much more experienced North Carolina — which started two super-seniors, a senior, a junior and freshman — has among its key players than does Kentucky, Dillingham said “playing games like that, it helps us grow.”
For a UK fan base yearning for Kentucky basketball to return to “gold-standard” form, the victory over fellow hoops blue-blood North Carolina had to feel good. UK has lost six of its last seven games in the Champions Classic. Before Saturday, it had lost three of its last four in the CBS Sports Classic.
Winning against the kind of foes Kentucky faces — fellow members of men’s NCAA basketball’s historic upper crust — in the annual, pre-conference doubleheaders is important to the Big Blue Nation.
Yet as happy as UK backers should be with a tough win over North Carolina, it was the way Kentucky won that suggests the current Cats have a chance to do something in March.
On Saturday, the Wildcats subdued the Tar Heels with their balance.
There will not be many rosters UK will encounter in 2023-24 that can match its depth of firepower.
“We’ve got really smart, good-hearted kids who are willing to share,” Calipari said.
If that continues to show in the Wildcats’ play, this thing could get pretty interesting for Kentucky moving forward.
This story was originally published December 16, 2023 at 10:38 PM.
