5 things you need to know from Kentucky’s 87-82 win vs. LSU in the SEC tourney
Five things you need to know from No. 9 seed Kentucky’s 87-82 win vs. No. 16 seed LSU in the SEC Tournament:
1. Cats throw off the “Music City blues.” Kentucky entered Wednesday’s game with a 91-40 all-time record in Nashville, but the Tennessee state capitol had recently become a hellscape for UK.
Going into the LSU contest, Kentucky had lost six of its previous eight games in Nashville, including its past three by margins of 29 points (Alabama in last season’s SEC tourney); 35 points (to Gonzaga earlier this season at Bridgestone Arena); and 25 points (at Vanderbilt in January).
Beating the bottom-seeded team in the opening game of the SEC Tournament is hardly enough to claim the Cats have flipped their recent negative mojo in the Music City.
But it’s a heck of a lot better than beginning tournament play by losing to the SEC’s last-place team.
2. Cats trying to regain SEC Tournament magic. For a good bit of Kentucky’s modern men’s basketball history, the SEC tourney has felt like the new UKIT.
In the 1990s, UK went 23-1 in SEC Tournament games and won seven tourney titles.
From 2010 through 2019, Kentucky had a 23-4 mark in the SEC Tournament and won six crowns.
However, since Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the Cats to the 2018 SEC tourney crown in St. Louis, UK has lost its conference tournament mojo.
Kentucky entered Wednesday’s contest with LSU having gone 2-5 in the SEC Tournament in the current decade (since 2020). UK is 3-6 in SEC tourney games since winning the 2018 tournament title.
Having vanquished LSU, Kentucky next faces No. 8 seed Missouri in the second round with a chance to win multiple games in a SEC tourney for the first time since 2018.
3. The “Brandon Garrison Game.” Kentucky’s junior center played one of the best games of his two-season UK career to date.
The 6-foot-10, 245-pound Oklahoma City product came off the Cats’ bench to contribute 17 points, five rebounds, two assists, two blocks and two steals.
With Kentucky clinging to a 65-64 lead almost midway through the second half, Garrison drained back-to-back 3-point shots to push the Cats ahead 71-64 and send the pro-UK crowd in the Bridgestone Arena into a frenzy.
The back-to-back treys were the first made 3-pointers in a game for Garrison since he sank one in Nashville on Dec. 5 in UK’s loss to Gonzaga.
4. Kam Williams’ return. After being listed as “probable” on Kentucky’s Tuesday night injury report, Williams checked into Wednesday’s game with 14:10 remaining in the first half.
It was the first game action for the 6-foot-8, 200-pound sophomore wing since he suffered a broken foot after scoring nine points in 16 minutes of playing time in UK’s 85-80 win over Texas at Rupp Arena on Jan. 21.
When Williams checked in for Collin Chandler for the first time, the pro-UK crowd at Bridgestone Arena let out a roar.
With 10:08 left in half one, Williams drained a 3-pointer from the left wing to give Kentucky a 23-17 edge.
The Lafayette, Louisiana, product wound up playing 17 minutes in the game, with three points and two rebounds.
Prior to being injured, Williams was averaging 6.9 points, 2.1 rebounds and shooting 34.8% from behind the 3-point arc.
5. Otega Oweh on the UK scoring list. The Kentucky senior guard scored 23 points in the win over LSU.
That gave Oweh 1,171 points for his UK career and moved him past Antonio Reeves (1,155) for second among Cats players who played only two varsity seasons.
Only Bill Spivey (1,213 career points) has scored more points than Oweh among two-year players at Kentucky.
On the overall UK scoring list, Oweh moved up to 42nd, passing Wallace “Wah Wah” Jones (1,151); Vernon Hatton (1,153); Reeves (1,155); Derrick Miller (1,156); Reggie Hanson (1,167) and Wayne Turner (1,170).
A transfer from Oklahoma, Oweh now has 1,669 points in his overall college career.
This story was originally published March 11, 2026 at 2:52 PM.
