Kentucky basketball got back to it’s winning ways with a 90-77 home win over Mississippi State. The game wasn’t as close as the score indicated but lets dive into some takeaways.
The Defense Takes a Step Forward
Much has been written about Kentucky’s defense. Can they get better? How good do they need to really be with an explosive offense? We didn’t get a definitive answer on those questions, but the defense did show signs of life today in the first half. Cal threw an extra defender at State’s big which forced some turnovers that allowed Kentucky to run and build a lead. Most noticeably was the improved effort on the ball as State was unable to get uncontested looks at the rim the way A&M was able to.
Special credit to Ugo who played an excellent first half on Tolu Smith, that allowed Kentucky to play Smith straight up and stay attached on the perimeter. Kentucky still gets lost on switches and the poor rotations allowed too many offensive rebounds in the 2nd half but today was a nice step forward.
Rob and Antonio Brought Back the Efficiency
Kentucky kind of lost it’s efficiency in the 2nd half against Texas A&M but had no such issues today. Rob Dillingham and Antonio Reeves combined for 43 points on just 24 shots. That is high level basketball and what makes it more impressive is that they did it while shooting a combined 3/10 from behind the arc. Teams are making a concerted effort to run Kentucky off the three-point line and instead of chucking bad shots they are getting high level looks. Including drawing fouls, as the pair combined to go 14-16 from the FT line.
When Kentucky gets that kind of performance from those two and also gets 6 assists from Reed they are hard to beat. This team is full of smart players who playing winning basketball.
The Bigs Are Important
It took almost all of non-conference play but Kentucky finally got it’s bigs back and we are seeing how important they are. Ugo and Aaron combined for 6 blocks and gave just enough rebounding (each grabbed 6) for Kentucky to control the game. Both are still making up for lost time as they get up to game speed but even at 75% Kentucky is a better team with those two available.
Unfortunately, Kentucky has lost another important player in Adou but when he comes back Kentucky should have all the pieces to play (and win) a variety of styles.
What Does It Mean
It has been 3 seasons since Kentucky won the SEC and while not the most important thing in the world (especially since we refuse to play balanced schedules in CBB) I think that matters. The league appears to be coming down to Alabama, Auburn, Kentucky, and Tennessee and the Cats can’t afford to drop more than one home game. This was an important win over a team that will likely steal a game or two from that group.
In terms of the tournament, the Cats were able to impose its style of play on a veteran and well-coached team. State is the type of team Kentucky will run into in the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament and it is a good sign that Kentucky was able to win comfortably. The Cats will now get ready for a frisky Georgia team to come into Rupp Arena. We’ll have a preview of that game in the coming days but for now we’ll enjoy the win.
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