Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s win over the Vanderbilt Commodores
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Game day: No. 17 Kentucky 109, Vanderbilt 77
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Tuesday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Vanderbilt at Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville, Tennessee.
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Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s 109-77 romp over the Vanderbilt Commodores on Tuesday night at Memorial Gym.
1. Vanderbilt is an excellent elixir
With a slumping Kentucky dragging a two-game losing streak into Memorial Gym to face Vanderbilt, the struggling Commodores proved to be just what the doctor ordered. Kentucky owned the Memorial Magic on this night.
Even without D.J. Wagner (ankle) or Tre Mitchell (back), the Cats were scorching at the start, making a ridiculous 10 of their first 12 3-point shots. Rob Dillingham got things going with a pair of made triples. Antonio Reeves joined in on the fun on the way to going 6-for-9 from beyond the arc for the night. He scored 24 points. Dillingham finished with 20.
“We ran into a hot team, a desperate team,” Vandy coach Jerry Stackhouse said.
The night’s high points belonged to some Cats who have not been among the team’s regular producers, however. We’re talking Justin Edwards, Zvonimir “Big Z” Ivisic and Jordan Burks.
Edwards finished with a career-high 17 points, punctuated by a windmill dunk and a perfect 6-for-6 performance at the foul line. Afterward, John Calipari said he had made a change in the five-star prospect’s game, something the coach later referred to as a “tweak.” Edwards explained Cal wanted him to look for the pass first, then the open shots would come.
Finally able to practice for consecutive days, Ivisic scored 11 points and grabbed seven rebounds in 12 minutes before fouling out. Calipari said if Big Z can practice on a consistent basis he should be able to make significant contributions. That is if Z cuts down on some of his crazy plays, Cal said.
Then there’s Burks, who scored a career-high 13 points in 15 minutes. Burks was a perfect 6-for-6 from the floor. He also grabbed five rebounds. You could see his teammates cheering every play Burks made.
No one should make too much out of UK’s win. Vanderbilt is now 6-16 overall and 1-8 in the SEC, after all. But after losses to Florida and Tennessee last week, these Cats was in dire need of a confidence-builder. This game provided just that.
2. You can’t box in John Calipari
You know the deal with quirky Memorial Gymnasium. The benches are on the baseline. For years, coaches were not allowed to leave that baseline. Less than a decade ago, the rules were changed to allow the coaches to coach from the sideline.
In the 103-92 loss to Tennessee at Rupp Arena, Calipari appeared to spend most of his time trying to coach the officiating crew. On Tuesday night, he coached his team. For the most part, anyway.
Calipari was up and down the sideline, yelling, screaming, encouraging, instructing, gesturing, pointing, stamping his feet — doing all kinds of well coaching. There were times when he traveled beyond the lines of the coaching box. There were times when he was out on the floor — a coaching habit that appears to have swept the country and needs to stop.
And Cal being Cal, there were a few instances where he took issue with the rulings of Don Daily and his crew. Toward the end of the game, Daily gave Calipari one of those “that’s enough” gestures and Cal cooled it.
Instead, it was Stackhouse who drew a technical foul with 7:40 remaining. Watching his team be run out of the Gym, coupled with what he thought were uneven calls, was too much for the former NBA star.
“I though the crew let the game get away from them,” the Vandy coach said. “I just want them to be consistent and they weren’t consistent.”
3. It’s easier to beat Vanderbilt than Nashville traffic
To cover the Kentucky-Vanderbilt game, I stayed at a hotel in Goodlettsville, about 15 miles outside of Nashville. Since we were informed by Vanderbilt that we could not pick up media credentials until one hour before tipoff, 7:30 p.m. CST, I left the hotel at 5:50 pm. CST. The GPS said it would take 25 minutes to reach Vanderbilt University. Instead, it took an hour and 40 minutes.
It was smooth sailing until I got to the heart of West End Drive, about a mile from the turn on 25th Avenue to the Kensington Parking Garage. From there, it took approximately 45 minutes to make it less than a half-mile. Luckily, I knew to get in the left-hand turn lane a couple of stoplights before 25th Avenue. The right-hand lanes were filled with desperate drivers with their left turn signals on in hopes of a friendly face. Those were few and far between.
After inching along, I finally was able to make the left-hand turn and reach the garage and parked my car right at 7:30 p.m. CST. Luckily, Gate 4, the media gate, was next to the garage. I scurried up the steps outside Memorial and after a quick security check of my backpack, I received my credential and hustled up the stairs to the “Crow’s Nest” media seating just as the public address announcer completed his introductions of Vandy’s starting lineup.
After finally arriving, I found that other media members, and members of UK’s traveling party, had the same difficulty making it to the game on time. We agreed that in all our trips to Vandy we had never seen it quite like that.
Aside from poor traffic control, there was another reason for the traffic jam. Kentucky fans. Never mind that the Cats had lost their last two games and dropped to No. 17 in the latest AP poll. As usually is the case, they turned out in full force in Music City to cheer on the Cats. And saw plenty to cheer about.
Said Edwards, “It felt like a home game.”
This story was originally published February 7, 2024 at 12:32 AM.
