Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s physical win over Georgia State
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Game day: No. 8 Kentucky 105, Georgia State 76
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Friday night’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Georgia State in Rupp Arena.
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Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s 105-76 victory over Georgia State on Friday night at Rupp Arena:
1. Kentucky didn’t back down
Georgia State played a physical game. No surprise there. As a Georgia Bulldog, Georgia State coach Jonas Hayes was a physical player. He later served as an assistant coach for current UK assistant Mark Fox when Fox was the head coach at Georgia. And Fox’s teams played physical basketball.
“One of our calling card is to play a physical brand of basketball,” Hayes said after the game. “I don’t think there was anything sinister about it. … I’m proud of the competitive fight we brought to this game.”
With 12:37 left in the second half, it got a little too physical. Georgia State’s Clash Peters basically body-blocked UK center Amari Williams, who hit the floor. Williams’ teammate Koby Brea shoved Peters. Otega Oweh got involved. There was pushing and shoving and ultimately some technical fouls assessed.
At the time, Kentucky led 61-53. From that point on, the Cats outscored the visitors 44-23. Immediately after the skirmish, Pope’s team went on a 20-8 run.
“They’re a really physical team,” Pope said of the Panthers. “When things got a little more intense, I thought our guys pulled together.”
2. Kentucky can score inside the arc, as well
The bad news was that Kentucky, a team that wants to excel from the 3-point line, made just seven of 26 3-point shots for 26.9%.
“Our chief goal was not to get burned by the 3,” Hayes said.
The good news was that Kentucky was 33-for-41 from two-point range for 80.5%. And the Cats outscored the Panthers 62-24 in the paint. That, Pope said, “was super cool.”
On the way to a 48-33 lead at halftime, the Cats were just 4-for-11 from beyond the arc. But they were 15-for-17 on two-point shots. Lamont Butler made all five of his twos. Jaxson Robinson made all four of his twos. Kentucky had a 26-10 advantage in the paint.
Butler finished 7-for-7 from inside the arc. Robinson ended up 8-for-9. Amari Williams was 4-for-6 from two-point land. Ansley Almonor was 2-for-2, as well as making two of its three 3-point attempts.
It added up to the Cats’ fourth game this season in which they have scored 100 or more points. They are averaging an even 100 points through six home games.
“I thought we won a different way against Western Kentucky and we won a different way tonight,” Pope said.
3. Give it up for ‘Downhill Butler’
Here is Butler’s final stat line: 17 points, six assists, four rebounds and three steals in 29 minutes.
Game in and game out, the transfer from Sam Diego State has been a major factor on both ends of the floor. We knew about his defensive ability. He’s a three-time Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year. We knew he could come up big in big moments, given he hit a winning shot in the Final Four. What we are seeing is a player developing into a complete player.
“The savvy that he’s playing with now,” Pope said afterward, “his maturity of the game, the fact that he’s not blindly racing downhill, but he’s a prober now and he’s manipulating all the pieces of the court.”
In fact, the head coach relayed a story from the team’s Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday when the players said they had come up with a new nickname for the 6-foot-2 guard off the way he drive the ball down the lane to the basket. The only problem was that Butler couldn’t remember the phrase.
So when Butler was doing his postgame interviews, Pope stuck his head in the middle of the media scrum to find out the answer.
“Downhill Butler,” Butler said with a smile.
This story was originally published November 29, 2024 at 11:00 PM.
