Five things you need to know from No. 17 Kentucky’s 82-61 pasting of Vanderbilt
READ MORE
Game day: No. 17 Kentucky 82, Vanderbilt 61
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Wednesday night’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Vanderbilt in Rupp Arena.
Expand All
Five things you need to know from No. 17 Kentucky’s 82-61 whipping of Vanderbilt:
1. Kentucky turns in one heck of a defensive half. After surrendering 40 points to Vanderbilt and leading only 41-40 at halftime, Kentucky pretty much stifled the Vandy offense in half two.
UK held the Commodores to 8-of-27 shooting, 1-of-10 3-pointers in the second half. Vandy scored only 21 points after halftime, and five of those came in the final two minutes with the issue long since decided.
Amari Williams gave the Wildcats ample rim protection with four blocked shots.
In an active 15 minutes off the UK bench, Collin Chandler made two steals.
As bad as Kentucky has looked defensively at times this season, it was encouraging to see the Cats capable of clamping down on a solid SEC opponent.
2. For UK, a turnover turnaround. In UK’s loss to Vandy in Nashville, the Commodores were credited with 10 steals, forced 17 total turnovers and finished plus-12 in turnover margin.
Vanderbilt came to Lexington ranked 21st in NCAA Division I men’s basketball in steals, averaging 9.2 a game. While the Commodores entered Wednesday’s contest 10th in the nation in turnover margin (plus-4.7), Kentucky stood a lowly 248th (minus-0.7).
So the fact that UK was facing Vandy missing its top three point guards due to injury Wednesday night seemed especially daunting.
While Vandy stole the ball 10 times vs. Kentucky, the good news was UK had only 13 total turnovers. The Wildcats were a far more manageable minus-3 in turnover margin in the rematch vs. Vanderbilt and the Wildcats actually came out on top in points off turnovers, 18-17.
3. The Brea factor. It is an oversimplification to say that Kentucky wins when Koby Brea hits 3-point shots and loses when he doesn’t.
After all, Brea was 1-for-6 from behind the arc in UK’s victory over Gonzaga and 1-for-5 on treys in the Wildcats’ win at Mississippi State. Conversely, the Dayton transfer made 2 of 3 3-pointers in Kentucky’s loss to Alabama.
Nevertheless, the numbers show Kentucky has been far more likely to win in games against other power conference teams when Brea is making treys.
It probably was not a coincidence that UK ran a set designed to get Brea a trey on the game’s first possession. Brea swished the shot only 14 seconds after the tipoff. Brea went on to hit 3 of 4 3-pointers and finished with 12 points.
In UK’s nine wins over power conference competition plus Gonzaga, Brea has made 48 percent of his treys (24-for-50).
Meanwhile, the 6-foot-7, 215-pound super-senior has made only 26.8% of his 3-point shots (11-for-41) in Kentucky’s eight losses to power conference foes.
4. An unexpected freshman shines. Due to injuries, UK freshmen have been pressed into expanded roles over the past three games.
Against Vanderbilt, Collin Chandler provided Kentucky with a lift.
The 6-foot-5, 202-pound product of Farmington, Utah, finished with seven points, six rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Those were new college career highs for Chandler in points, rebounds and assists and tied his best effort in steals (two vs. Bucknell).
Meanwhile, Travis Perry, the 6-1, 188-pound Lyon County product, drained two second half 3-pointers and finished the game with six points, two assists and a steal.
Trent Noah, the 6-foot-5, 220-pound Harlan County product, was not making shots Wednesday night, as he went 0-of-4 on 3-point attempts. Noah did have three rebounds.
5. Checking in on UK’s all-time wins race with Kansas. With Wednesday night’s victory, Kentucky (18-8) gained a game on Kansas (17-9) in the all-time NCAA Division I men’s basketball wins race.
UK now has 2,416 all-time wins compared to KU’s 2,410.
In the battle to be men’s Division I college basketball’s all-time wins leader, Kansas passed Kentucky for the lead during the 2022 NCAA Tournament. The Jayhawks finished that 2021-22 season with a 2,357-2,353 advantage over UK.
By the end of the 2022-23 season, the Jayhawks added six more victories to their all-time lead over the Wildcats and ended that year with a 10-win advantage, 2,385-2,375.
During the ensuing 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, which officially entered the 2023-24 season with a 2,375-2,370 lead over Kansas.
When both UK and KU won 23 games in 2023-24, it meant the Wildcats began the current season with a 2,398-2,393 edge over the Jayhawks.
In its most recent game, No. 23 Kansas was pummeled 91-57 at BYU on Tuesday night.
This story was originally published February 19, 2025 at 9:09 PM.
