Five things you need to know from Kentucky basketball’s 108-59 win over Jackson State
READ MORE
Game day: No. 9 Kentucky 108, Jackson State 59
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Friday night’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Jackson State in Rupp Arena.
Expand All
The 108 points were great. The 17 3s were fun. Pope was ‘super proud’ of something else.
‘It was fun.’ Three takeaways as Kentucky basketball routs Jackson State.
Five things you need to know from Kentucky basketball’s 108-59 win over Jackson State
Box score from No. 9 Kentucky basketball’s 108-59 win over Jackson State
Kentucky basketball dominates again. Mark Pope’s Cats beat Jackson State by 49 points.
Five things you need to know from No. 9 Kentucky’s 108-59 win over Jackson State in men’s NCAA college basketball at Rupp Arena on Friday night:
1. Kentucky’s remarkable balance. At halftime, UK had played 10 players all between six and 14 minutes. Every UK player was between plus-10 and plus-14 in the plus/minus category.
For the game, nine of Kentucky’s top 10 players finished between plus-18 and plus-29. What that suggests is there is little to no drop off no matter who Mark Pope has on the court.
That’s not a small advantage for a coach.
2. Koby Brea’s torrid 3-point shooting. This is all you need to know about the scalding touch Kentucky’s Brea has displayed from behind the 3-point arc through five games:
On Friday night, the Dayton transfer buried 5 of 8 3-point shots for the Wildcats. That lowered his season percentage from behind the arc.
The 6-foot-7, 215-pound super-senior came into the Jackson State game shooting a ridiculous 78.9 on 3-point shots in 2024-25.
After going 5-for-8 against the Tigers, Brea’s 3-point percentage dropped to 74.1 (20-for-27) on the season.
Brea led Kentucky on Friday night with 22 points.
To this point in the season, any time Brea takes a shot with his feet set, it is literally a shock if it does not go in the basket.
3. Maybe Kentucky does have a star-caliber player? The conventional knock on Kentucky this season is that the Wildcats have a lot of good players (see point No. 1) but no real stars.
Well, don’t look now, but UK might have a star developing right before our eyes.
Against Jackson State, Otega Oweh made eight of 12 shots, all four of his foul shots and finished with 21 points, three steals and two assists.
In addition to making, essentially, the two game-winning plays in the final seconds of UK’s upset of Duke in the Champions Classic, the 6-4, 215-pound Oweh has now scored in double figures in all five of Kentucky’s games.
Other than his clutch play against Duke, Oweh’s greatest attribute so far this season is that the junior guard gets off to fast starts in games.
That helps UK get off to good starts.
4. Cats stay perfect in Unity Series. With its victory, Kentucky is now 3-0 in the Unity Series, a five-year partnership between UK and the Southwestern Athletic Conference in which the Wildcats play an annual game against a SWAC member to raise awareness of the missions of Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
As part of the Unity Series, UK has beaten Southern (76-62 in 2021-22) and Florida A&M (88-68 in 2022-23).
In 2023-24, Kentucky counted its exhibition contest against Kentucky State, a 99-53 UK win, as its Unity Series game.
Overall, Kentucky is now officially 9-0 against teams currently in the Southwestern Athletic Conference and is 10-0 against the current SWAC in on-the-court outcomes.
UK is 3-0 vs. Mississippi Valley State, 2-0 vs. Florida A&M, 2-0 on the court vs. Southern (Kentucky’s 99-84 win over the Jaguars in the 1988 NCAA Tournament round of 64 was vacated by order of the NCAA due UK’s use of a player subsequently deemed ineligible) and is 1-0 against Alcorn Stake, Jackson State and Texas Southern.
The Wildcats have never played SWAC schools Alabama A&M, Alabama State, Arkansas Pine Bluff, Bethune-Cookman. Grambling State and Prairie View.
5. All-time wins check-in. Through five games of the Mark Pope coaching era, UK is holding serve in its battle with Kansas to be the men’s college basketball all-time wins leader.
With Kentucky’s victory against Jackson State, both the Wildcats and Jayhawks are 5-0. As a result, UK maintains the five-win advantage it had over KU entering the 2024-25 season.
Kentucky now has 2,403 all-time victories while Kansas has 2,398.
Both teams return to action Tuesday night. The No. 9 Wildcats will play host to intrastate-rival Western Kentucky at Rupp Arena. Meanwhile, the No. 1 Jayhawks will play No. 12 Duke on a neutral court in Las Vegas.
This story was originally published November 22, 2024 at 9:00 PM.
