Five things you need to know from No. 6 Kentucky’s 97-92 OT loss to Texas A&M
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Game day: Texas A&M 97, No. 6 Kentucky 92 (OT)
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 in College Station, Texas.
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Five things you need to know from No. 6 Kentucky’s 97-92 overtime loss to the Texas A&M Aggies in men’s SEC basketball at Reed Arena in College Station:
1. A milestone win gets away from Calipari. Texas A&M’s victory denied John Calipari his 400th win as Kentucky head coach.
Calipari, 399-116 as UK head man, will try again to win his 400th game as top Cat when the Wildcats play Mississippi State on Wednesday night at Rupp Arena.
2. Aggies’ veteran guards win out. Texas A&M’s well-seasoned backcourt combination of Wade Taylor and Tyrece Radford took it to Kentucky.
Taylor, a 6-foot, 175-pound junior from Dallas, went for a game-high 31 points. Though not especially efficient overall, making 7-of-24 shots, Taylor his 6 of 13 3-point shots and 11 of 12 free throws. With the game tied at 76 in regulation, Taylor hit three straight treys to carry A&M down the stretch.
Radford, a 6-3, 190-pound super-senior, has emerged as something of a “Cat killer.” After scoring 22 points against UK at Rupp Arena last season, he went for 28 points, nine rebounds and four assists Saturday.
The Baton Rouge, Louisiana, product was 0-of-5 from the foul line when he toed the charity stripe with seven seconds left in regulation and the score tied. He hit both free throws to give A&M a two-point edge, though UK’s Reed Sheppard sent the game to OT with a pair of foul shots of his own with 0.6 of a second left.
In the OT, Radford put A&M ahead for good with a conventional 3-point play only 10 seconds into the extra period.
3. UK veterans struggle. Until Saturday, Kentucky had been able to mostly rely on its two super-seniors, Antonio Reeves and Tre Mitchell, in tight spots on the road.
That did not prove to be the case at Texas A&M.
Reeves had a good stat line, finishing with 22 points and six rebounds. But 16 of his points came in the first half. He went 2-of-7 on field-goal attempts, 1-of-4 on treys, after halftime.
With 13 rebounds, Mitchell produced his fifth straight, double-digit rebounding game. But the 6-9, 231-pound transfer from West Virginia made only 3 of 13 shots, 1 of 6 3-pointers, and turned the ball over three times. He finished with eight points.
Kentucky’s struggles in the overtime, when the Wildcats failed to score a field goal, may have partially owed to the fact Reeves and Mitchell did not seem their usual selves down the stretch of the game.
4. Texas A&M shooting. The Aggies entered the Kentucky game mired in an arctic shooting slump.
In A&M’s first two SEC contests — a 68-53 home loss to LSU and a 66-55 road defeat at Auburn — the Aggies combined to shoot 33-of-121 (27.3%) from the floor and 8-of-47 (17%) on 3-point shots.
For the season, A&M entered the game making only 40.1% of its shots, which ranked No. 332 out of 351 NCAA Division I men’s basketball teams.
Yet in his pregame interview with the UK Sports Network’s Tom Leach, John Calipari promised the Aggies will “shoot it better today than they have been. You’ve followed us. You know that.”
Texas A&M proceeded to begin the game by making 6 of 9 shots — and the Aggies were above 50% shooting at 16-of-31 (51.6%) by the final television timeout of the first half. A&M ended the first half just below 50%, 17-of-36 (47.2%).
For the game, A&M made only 40.2% of its field-goal tries (33-of-82) but hit a relatively robust 37.5% on treys (12-of-32).
A veteran team, in a desperate spot after losing its first two league games, and playing at home was likely to shoot better. Still, UK’s persistent difficulties defending against drivers coming off of high ball screens helped A&M, too.
5. Buzz Williams moves off a dubious list. Texas A&M’s victory was the first for the Aggies head couch against Kentucky in five tries.
Of the current SEC head men, there are now only three who have never beaten UK.
Florida’s Todd Golden (0-3), LSU’s Matt McMahon (0-1) and Mississippi’s Chris Beard (0-1) have not yet beaten Kentucky. (Beard has yet to coach against UK as Ole Miss head man but was 0-1 versus the Wildcats at Texas Tech).
This story was originally published January 13, 2024 at 5:06 PM.
