Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s loss to Kansas in the Champions Classic
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Game day: No. 1 Kansas 89, No. 17 Kentucky 84
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Tuesday night’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Kansas at the United Center in Chicago.
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Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s 89-84 loss to the No. 1-ranked Kansas Jayhawks in the Champions Classic at the United Center.
1. There was a lot to like in this Kentucky loss
Yes, ultimately, Kentucky lost. Yes, John Calipari’s Cats held a 14-point lead with 16 minutes remaining and still lost. Yes, the nation’s 17th-ranked team led the nation’s top-ranked team by six points with 5:48 remaining and still lost. Yes, the Cats missed their final eight shots and lost.
In this case, this early, in this environment, against this competition, the final score didn’t matter all that much. In a matchup where many — myself included — thought there was a more than decent chance that Calipari’s young team might be crushed by the bigger, more experienced Jayhawks, this young band of Cats gave Bill Self’s team everything it could handle.
“The thing I liked is we fought,” Calipari said afterward.
After falling behind 9-0 right out of the gate, Kentucky fought. After Kansas made its big run in the second half, turning a 58-44 deficit into a 65-62 lead, Kentucky fought to take a 67-65 lead with 10:16 left. When Kansas led 72-71 with 6:52 remaining, Kentucky fought to take an 81-75 lead with 3:46 left.
No one fought harder than Adou Thiero. The 6-foot-8 sophomore finished with his first career double-double, grabbing a career-high 13 rebounds go with his 16 points.
It wasn’t enough. Though booed by UK fans each time he touched the ball, Kansas 7-foot center Hunter Dickinson finished with 27 points and 21 rebounds. His size and skill was too much for UK to handle.
“I got work to do to help them finish off games,” Calipari said.
That the Cats were in a position to finish in the first place was a sign of better things to come.
2. Kentucky took 38 3-point shots
In the Calipari era, the Cats have not exactly been known as the second coming of Pitino’s Bombinos. They gave a decent impersonation Tuesday night, however.
After going 9 of 23 from beyond the arc in the first half, Kentucky ended up 12 of 38 from 3-point land. The 38 attempts were the most by a Calipari team at UK. The previous high was 33, which happened three times.
You can make the argument that Kentucky’s ability to make 3-pointers gave UK a 48-41 lead at the half. During one memorable stretch, freshman Rob Dillingham drained four consecutive triples in a span of two minutes, turning a 25-21 Kansas lead into a 33-30 UK advantage. And when Antonio Reeves followed with a 3-pointer of his own, UK led 36-30.
Alas, the Cats cooled off considerably in the second half, going 3 of 15. Reeves ended up 7 of 25 from the floor, including 3 of 17 from 3-point range. D.J. Wagner ended up 1 of 12 from the floor. He missed all three of his 3-point attempts. Justin Edwards was also 0-for-3 from 3. The freshman was 0-for-6 from the floor.
Kansas coach Bill Self said he expected the smaller but quicker Cats — still without their three 7-footers — to spread the floor and drive. Instead, the Cats spread the floor and hoisted 3s. And it almost worked.
3. Calipari will have to figure out his combinations
Better to have too many guards than not enough. And Kentucky has plenty of guards, from Wagner to Reeves to Dillingham to Edwards to Reed Sheppard, who along with Dillingham helped turn the game around.
It’s obvious that just three games into the season, Calipari is still mixing and matching his guard combinations. There were times when you wondered why Sheppard was not in the game more. There were others where you wondered why Dillingham wasn’t in the game more, though he got into foul trouble in the second half.
You also have to remember that Calipari is playing with Mitchell, a probable power forward, in the center position out of necessity. Self said afterward that Mitchell playing that position makes Kentucky hard to guard. But as Dickinson’s numbers showed, the Cats need more size in the post. The hope is that’s coming when Aaron Bradshaw and Ugonna Onyenso get healthy, and Zvonimir Ivisic is ruled eligible. That’s the hope.
Said Self, “When they get Bradshaw back, and their other guys, they’re going to be hard to deal with.”
This story was originally published November 15, 2023 at 1:32 AM.
