Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s win over the North Carolina Tar Heels
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Game day: No. 14 Kentucky 87, No. 9 North Carolina 83
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and North Carolina in the CBS Sports Classic at State Farm Arena in Atlanta
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Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s 87-83 win over North Carolina in the CBS Sports Classic:
Kentucky showed just how good it can be
At the end of a high-tension, drama-filled game played in what felt like an NCAA Tournament atmosphere, it was the losing coach, North Carolina’s Hubert Davis, who might have summed it up best.
“They have a number of players that can create their own shot in one-on-one situations,” Davis said. “From a defensive standpoint, they had to make some tough shots in one-on-one, and down the stretch they were able to do that.”
Time and again. It was D.J. Wagner, the freshman guard, who took the ball to the basket and scored on a clear-out with 2:13 left to give Kentucky an 81-77 lead. It was Rob Dillingham who scored off the bounce, driving to the basket and finishing with 1:31 left to make it 83-80 Kentucky.
It was Aaron Bradshaw, the 7-foot freshman playing in his third collegiate game, who made both ends of a bonus situation with 46.3 seconds left to give the Cats an 85-81 lead.
It was Dillingham who got fouled with 11.9 seconds left and made the second of two free throws to make it 86-83. And when North Carolina suffered a crucial miscommunication on the game’s biggest possession — the pass from freshman guard Elliot Cadeau hitting an unaware Cormac Ryan in the back — it was Bradshaw who made the second of two free throws with 4.7 seconds left to make it 87-83. And ice it.
Down the stretch in UK’s 89-84 loss to Kansas in the Champions Classic, the Cats couldn’t make those type of plays. That’s why they squandered a 14-point lead and the game to the Jayhawks. But that was different. For one thing, UK didn’t yet have Bradshaw on the floor. And that was Kentucky’s third game of the season. This was the Wildcats’ 10th.
Or maybe it was UK coach John Calipari who summed it up best when he said, “To make the plays at the end of the game like we did shows you who we are.”
2. Kentucky won the game in the trenches
If you look at the stat sheet, you see that foul trouble limited Bradshaw to just 12 points, three rebounds and zero blocked shots in 21 minutes. But that doesn’t really tell the story.
“It’s been great to have him back,” said teammate Tre Mitchell, who was holding down the center spot while Bradshaw recovered from a broken foot suffered in March. “You can see his impact on the court.”
And the stat sheet showed that 7-foot sophomore Ugonna Onyenso, finally back after injuring his foot last summer in Canada, scored just one point and grabbed three rebounds in 10 minutes. Ah, but after being so sick with the flu he did not fly to Atlanta until Saturday, Onyenso blocked three shots.
“He had an impact,” Calipari said.
Davis said afterward that “these types of games are won in the trenches.” And Kentucky won it in the trenches. The Cats outrebounded the Tar Heels 42-32. They grabbed 18 offensive rebounds in 44 opportunities for an offensive rebound percentage of 40.9. Not bad for a team that entered the game ranked 280th in that category at 25.9%.
Meanwhile, North Carolina’s All-America center Armando Bacot finished the night with just nine points and six rebounds in 31 minutes. The 24-year-old’s experience factor turned out to be not much of a factor.
“We had to fight in this game,” Calipari said, “and we did that.”
3. This win can do a lot for this team
It is true that in the SEC/ACC Challenge on Nov. 28, Kentucky trounced a Miami team 95-73 that at the time was ranked No. 8 in the AP Top 25. Since then, Miami lost to Colorado by 27 points. At home.
And Miami is not North Carolina. Not when it comes to college basketball history. Whenever UK and UNC get together on a basketball court it’s a special event. Saturday was no different with State Farm Arena divided nearly equally, both in presence and decibels.
To prevail in a tight game in that sort of atmosphere should do plenty for Calipari’s young club. It’s one thing to think you can win this type of game. It’s one thing to believe you can win this type of game. It’s another thing entirely to go out and win this type of game.
“We have some dogs,” Calipari said afterward.
There was one perfect example of that. After leading for most of the way, the Cats finally fell behind 72-71 when Bacot made two free throws with 5:15 left.
How did Kentucky respond? The Cats responded by scoring three straight baskets. Bradshaw scored off a rebound. Dillingham scored on a drive, then followed that with a fast-break basket. Just like that, Kentucky was ahead 77-72. And surely that gave the Cats the confidence they could win this game.
And surely this win gives this team confidence it can beat anyone left on its schedule, in any place, at any time.
This story was originally published December 16, 2023 at 10:11 PM.
