Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s loss to the Vanderbilt Commodores
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Game day: Vanderbilt 68, Kentucky 66
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Wednesday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Vanderbilt in Rupp Arena.
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Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s 68-66 loss to the Vanderbilt Commodores on Wednesday night at Rupp Arena:
1. Yet another plot twist to this season’s story
Kentucky head coach John Calipari has said it before and repeated it again last night, saying that despite what anyone thinks, his 2022-23 basketball team can write its own story. Thing is, the story has taken more than its fair share of twists and turns.
After routing Auburn 86-54 at Rupp last Saturday, the Wildcats appeared to finally be on the right path. They had won four straight. They were in sole possession of third place in the SEC with a 11-6 record. They were playing their best basketball of the season at just the right time.
Then came a weird Wednesday. Vanderbilt arrived having won six of is last seven games, but less than five minutes into the first half the Commodores lost their best player, 7-foot center Liam Robbins, who had averaged 24 points a game over his last five games.
Then after falling behind 34-30 at the end of the first half, the Cats lost one of their best players. Cason Wallace went down holding his left leg with with 18:14 in the second half. He limped off, proceeded to the locker room and did not return. Afterward, Calipari reported that his point guard underwent X-rays that were negative, and there was no swelling. But without Wallace and Sahvir Wheeler, who underwent a surgical procedure Wednesday morning, the Cats played the final 18 minutes minus a true point guard.
To their credit, the Cats fought. After falling behind by 11 points at 46-35 with 15:12 left, UK scored on six straight possessions to cut the Commodores’ lead to 49-47. Overall, however, UK just couldn’t make enough shots to win. In fact, after shooting 56.4 percent in a 69-53 win over the ‘Dores in Nashville back on Jan, 24, UK shot 32.2 percent from the floor, including 3 of 19 from three-point range.
Antonio Reeves was 1 of 8 from three-point range. CJ Fredrick was 1 of 4. Jacob Toppin was 0 of 3. That UK was good but not great at the foul line didn’t help. The Cats were 25 of 35 for 71.4 percent for the game. Vandy was 10 of 13.
2. Kentucky’s defense was just not good enough
Wednesday proved again that Kentucky’s defense is not quite good enough for the Cats to overcome a bad shooting night. Vanderbilt shot 44.8 the second half and 40.3 percent for the game. The Commodores were 8 of 24 from three-point range, but that included a 4 of 11 showing in the second half.
On Kentucky’s Senior Night, it was a Vanderbilt senior who was the night’s MVP. Jordan Wright, the first player head coach Jerry Stackhouse signed at Vanderbilt, scored a game-high 23 points, including the game-winner, a fadeaway shot from the foul line in which the Baton Rouge native was able to use a spin move to separate from UK freshman Chris Livingston.
Before that, the Commodores had been able to beat the Cats off the bounce. Junior guard Tyrin Lawrence was 7 of 11 on two-point shots on the way to 21 points. Point guard Ezra Majon scored off a pair of nice drives. And before Wright’s game-winner, the 6-foot-6 swingman scored on a drive around Toppin that tied the game at 66-66 with 41 seconds left.
Vanderbilt snapped not just a 14-game losing streak against Kentucky, but a 14-game losing streak at Rupp. The ‘Dores had not won in the building since Kevin Stallings’ club beat Tubby Smith’s club 72-67 in 2007.
How big a win was it for Vanderbilt, now 10-7 in SEC play?
“To beat the king in his house is pretty special,” Stackhouse said.
3. Next question: Was this a momentum-killer for Kentucky?
Afterward, Calipari took a great pains to all but dismiss the loss. Said his team just missed shots. It played without a point guard for all but a minute and 46 seconds of the second half. Cal gave full credit to Vanderbilt, but also said, “We’ve done what we’ve needed to do. We’re fine.”
Now 11-7 in the SEC, the Cats are tied with Tennessee for third place in the standings. The sweep of the Vols gives Kentucky the tiebreaker. While Kentucky could be without Wallace for its regular-season finale Saturday at Arkansas, Tennessee will be definitely without point guard Zakai Zeigler for its finale at Auburn on Saturday. Zeigler is out for the season with a torn ACL suffered in Tuesday night’s win over Arkansas.
There are other Big Blue concerns. In his postgame press conference, Calipari estimated it would be a couple of weeks before Wheeler returned. It wasn’t that long ago that Fredrick was missing games because of a cracked rib. And the team’s core five of Wallace, Livingston, Toppin, Reeves and Oscar Tshiebwe have logged a lot of minutes.
Then there’s Toppin. The senior took the blame for the loss. Calipari was irate with his forward at the end of the first half as UK’s 30-26 lead turned into a 34-30 halftime deficit. That’s nothing new, Toppin said. But the player blamed himself for his reaction to the coach’s reaction.
“Some things are out of your control, but I can control my attitude and I didn’t do that,” he said. “Put this loss on me.”
To be the best team it can be, Kentucky needs Toppin to play well. His seven points snapped a string of 12 consecutive double-digit scoring games. He did grab 10 rebounds, “but I didn’t play well enough for us to win,” Toppin said. “That’s on me.”
This story was originally published March 1, 2023 at 11:08 PM.
