Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s win over South Carolina
Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s 92-64 win over the South Carolina Gamecocks on Saturday at Rupp Arena:
1. Calipari says win was good send-off for Cats
If the goal was to finish this disappointing regular season with a bang, mission accomplished. Kentucky swamped struggling South Carolina 56-36 in the second half, shot 58.8 percent over the final 20 minutes, made 13 of its 27 three-point shots for the game, emptied the bench and recorded a 28-point victory in front of the (limited) home crowd.
The feel-good victory is far from a guarantee John Calipari’s club can pull off a miracle next week in Music City (see No. 3), but Saturday sure beats closing out the campaign with another disappointing defeat. And if you want to see the glass as half-full, the Cats won four of their last six games, with the fourth victory producing a season high in points scored for a team that has had trouble scoring points.
It also had to be exhilarating to not be subjected to another pressure cooker, possession-by-possession game down the stretch. And it had to be a blast for the regulars to earn the right to cheer on Cam’Ron Fletcher, Lance Ware, Dontaie Allen, Riley Welch, Zan Payne, Brennan Canada and Kareem Watkins down the stretch. The latter four are walk-ons who in a normal year would see mop-up duty during UK’s numerous blowouts. Only this was not a normal Kentucky basketball season.
2. Calipari’s new starting lineup worked well
First, the fine print. South Carolina is not a good basketball team. The Gamecocks have struggled all season with a combination of COVID-19 — Saturday’s trip to Rupp was originally scheduled for Dec. 29 — and the opposition. Frank Martin’s team is now 6-14 overall and 4-12 in the SEC. Yes, Carolina upset Florida and it swept Georgia, but it also lost 93-73 at Tennessee and was blitzed 101-73 at home by Arkansas last time out.
All that being true, Kentucky still showed some encouraging signs Saturday. Calipari shook up the starting lineup, moving Davion Mintz to point guard, Jacob Toppin into the starting lineup and Devin Askew to the bench. All three worked out well.
Mintz caught fire in the second half, drilling five three-pointers, including three in succession — bang, bang, bang. He finished 6-for-11 from beyond the arc on the way to a game-high 20 points. But here’s the thing: Mintz also dished seven assists. As a team, Kentucky was credited with 17 assists on its 33 made field goals.
Toppin scored only two points and grabbed two rebounds but he helped hold South Carolina’s AJ Lawson, averaging 17 points per game, to just six points on 2-for-10 shooting, including 0-for-5 from three-point range.
“I like our length with Jacob starting,” Calipari said. “We’re really long now.”
Meanwhile, Askew appeared to benefit from the limited minutes (19). He finished with six points, three rebounds and two assists without turning the ball over. The freshman did failed to see a wide open Mintz in the corner on UK’s final play of the first half, Still, Askew ended up with a plus/minus of plus-11.
3. On to Nashville for the SEC Tournament
Despite the limited attendance (3,400) next week at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Calipari half-joked he hoped Kentucky fans would “climb through windows” to get inside the building on Broadway to root on the Cats, who could use in the support in their time of desperation, i.e. the SEC Tournament.
“Wear your mask so they don’t know who you are,” said the coach.
Music City will be four games of win-or-go-home for the Wildcats. On the plus side, though Calipari has never hidden his disdain for the conference tournament, Kentucky has historically played well in the all-league affair. On the negative side, this is not Calipari’s typical Kentucky team. The Cats have not won more than three games in a row all season long.
Can the Cats pull off a miracle? That’s highly unlikely, but at least they gained some confidence with Saturday’s blowout of a win.
“Now it’s a day off,” said Calipari, “then two days to get ready to try and play in a tournament we’ve had success in.”
This story was originally published March 6, 2021 at 4:11 PM.
