Five things you need to know from Kentucky’s 84-75 NCAA Tournament win over Illinois
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Game day: Kentucky 84, Illinois 75
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Sunday night’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Illinois at the NCAA Tournament in Milwaukee.
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Five things you need to know from No. 3 seed Kentucky’s 84-75 win over No. 6 seed Illinois in the men’s basketball NCAA Tournament round of 32:
1. A monumental win for Mark Pope. The primary, reasonable goal for the first-year Kentucky coach in 2024-25 was simple: Guide UK to multiple wins in an NCAA Tournament for the first time in the 2020s.
In spite of a roster handicapped by both season-ending and nagging, ongoing injuries, Pope has now done just that.
With the victory over Illinois, Kentucky is through to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2019.
Making Pope’s triumph even more significant from an optics standpoint, Kentucky’s old coach, John Calipari at Arkansas, and Pope’s old team, BYU, were already through to the Sweet 16.
Well, UK and Pope have now at least matched that.
With border state rival Tennessee awaiting UK in the round of 16, the Big Blue Nation will want more, of course.
But whatever happens in Indianapolis against the Rocky Toppers, Pope has met the goal he needed to meet — and done so through adversity.
2. What a difference veteran guards make. In Kentucky’s upset loss to Oakland in the 2024 NCAA Tournament, the Wildcats’ youthful guard corps had a dreadful go. Rob Dillingham, Reed Sheppard and D.J. Wagner combined to shoot 3-for-19 from the floor, 3-for-13 on 3-point tries in the upset loss to the No. 14 seed Golden Grizzlies.
On Sunday, UK reaped the March Madness benefit of veteran guards.
Super-senior wing Koby Brea rifled in 23 points. No longer just a 3-point specialist, Brea hit seven of his eight 2-point attempts.
Point guard Lamont Butler, another super-senior, had 14 points, five assists and three steals. A Butler theft in the backcourt when Illinois was attempting to rally with 4:37 left in the game led to a Brandon Garrison bucket that put UK up 74-64 and might have been the pivotal play of the game.
It is not an accident that Butler, a San Diego State transfer, has been the winning point guard in nine of the past 11 NCAA Tournament games in which he has played.
After foul trouble limited him to six minutes of first-half action, junior guard Otega Oweh scored 13 of his 15 points in half two.
Across the previous UK coaching regime, Kentucky had multiple freshman guards play big in the NCAA Tournament, of course.
But, for once, Kentucky backers had to relish having experienced guards to play under tournament pressure.
3. The brother of an ex-Cat. Former Kentucky players took it to UK in 2024-25.
Ex-Wildcats big man Aaron Bradshaw hit five of six shots and scored 11 points against Kentucky in the Buckeyes’ 85-65 spanking of the Wildcats in the CBS Sports Classic.
Former UK players Adou Thiero (21 points, eight boards), D.J. Wagner (17 points, eight assists) and Zvonimir Ivisic (14 points, four rebounds) all played huge for Arkansas in John Calipari’s 89-79 win over Kentucky at Rupp Arena.
Illinois did not have an ex-Kentucky player — but did have the brother of one.
Tomislav Ivisic, the 7-1, 255-pound brother of former Kentucky big man Zvonimir Ivisic, did not play poorly at all.
He finished with 19 points, six rebounds and four blocked shots.
Still, it turned out the brother of an ex-Cat did not yield the same mojo.
4. Cats in the round of 32. With the victory over Illinois, Kentucky is now 23-7 in the men’s NCAA Tournament round of 32 since the tournament expanded to at least 64 teams in 1985.
5. Mark Pope now atop a list. With Kentucky’s win over Illinois, the new UK head man is now 2-2 in his head coaching career in NCAA Tournament contests.
Believe it or not, in an era of coaching transition in the commonwealth of Kentucky, that moves Pope into a tie for the most NCAA Tournament victories among our state’s active NCAA Division I men’s hoops coaches.
The NCAA Tournament records of all eight of Kentucky’s current NCAA DI head men:
▪ Mark Pope, Kentucky 2-2.
▪ Darrin Horn, Northern Kentucky 2-3.
▪ Pat Kelsey, Louisville 0-5.
▪ Doug Davenport, Bellarmine 0-0.
▪ A.W. Hamilton, Eastern Kentucky 0-0.
▪ Jonathan Mattox, Morehead State 0-0.
▪ Ryan Miller, Murray State 0-0.
▪ Hank Plona, Western Kentucky 0-0.
This story was originally published March 23, 2025 at 7:50 PM.
