Kentucky
KSR Today: Kentucky issues statement on the Plains
James Fletcher On Why Kentucky, John Calipari Are Still In ‘Wait And See’ Territory | 02.15.24
Is Kentucky basketball back? It certainly felt like it on Saturday evening at Neville Arena. We even got to have some fun with a certain Dallas Cowboys gif following the game after Kentucky went into Auburn and controlled the contest for 40 minutes against Bruce Pearl’s squad.
The Quad 1A victory was arguably Kentucky’s best win of the year and has also re-opened a path to a double-bye at the SEC Tournament. Kentucky’s defense has seemingly turned the corner over the last 80 minutes of basketball, and two-game run has setup another big week for the Wildcats.
KSR Today is here to get this beautiful Victory Sunday started.
Kentucky’s defense is the story
Against a top-40 Ole Miss offense on Tuesday, Kentucky held the Rebels to 63 points and less than 0.9 points per possession. Chris Beard’s team shot just 22.7 percent from three (5/22) and had 12 turnovers. For the first time seemingly all season, Kentucky found a way to slow down a good offensive team.
The Wildcats responded to that performance by delivering its best defensive game this season.
A top-25 Auburn offense shot 39.4 percent from two (13/33), 18.2 percent from three (4/22), and had 11 turnovers. The Tigers managed only 59 points in one of their worst offensive outputs of the year. SEC Player of the Year candidate Johni Broome was limited to 14 points on 13 field goal attempts. The game was a total team effort from Kentucky.
Ugonna Onyenso and Adou Thiero combined for 15 defensive rebounds, Reed Sheppard logged five steals, and Onyenso chipped in two blocks. Kentucky forced Auburn into some tough shots and the result was the best performance of the year.
Over the last week, we’ve seen Kentucky improve just over 40 spots in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency rankings. The Wildcats are up to No. 81 overall and continued improvement on that end of the floor will make this a scary team in March.
KSR recaps Kentucky’s win over Auburn
Need some morning reading after the big SEC road win? KSR has everything you need to know from the best performance on the season. With the latest defensive improvement, March expectations in the Bluegrass are beginning to grow again.
Smash those links.
More postgame coverage on KSR’s YouTube Channel
Want to know what John Calipari, Antonio Reeves, and Ugonna Onyenso said after Kentucky’s win over Auburn? We’ve got you covered. KSR’s Steven Peake and Jack Pilgrim also jumped in front of the camera at Neville Arena to record another Rapid Reaction with a special guest.
Smash that play button. Subscribe. Hit that like button as we talk about some Kentucky hoops.
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The SEC race heats up
There were two significant developments in SEC basketball over the weekend. LSU beat South Carolina and Kentucky knocked off Auburn. Those outright upsets have created a mess in the middle of standings while Alabama and Tennessee continue to roll.
- Alabama (10-2)
- Tennessee (9-3)
- Auburn (9-4)
- South Carolina (9-4)
- Kentucky (8-4)
- Florida (8-4)
- Ole Miss (6-6)
- Mississippi State (6-6)
- Texas A&M (6-6)
- LSU (5-7)
- Georgia (4-8)
- Arkansas (3-9)
- Vanderbilt (2-10)
- Missouri (0-12)
The top four teams at the SEC Tournament receive double byes. Kentucky is now a half game back of South Carolina for that final spot. It’s worth noting that tiebreakers could not be on the Big Blue’s side. Due to an 0-1 record against the Gamecocks and a season split with Florida, things could bounce a bad way for Kentucky in a three-way tie scenario.
The race for seeding is wide open with three weeks left in the regular season.
More college basketball on Sunday
The hoops weekend is not over yet. We have the NBA All-Star game on Sunday night after Damian Lillard won the three-point contest, Mac McClung brought home another slam dunk title and Jaylen Brown gave a very nice tribute to former Kentucky guard Terrence Clark on Saturday night in Indianapolis.
Before the all-star action starts tonight, there is a full college basketball slate on Sunday with a huge bubble game in the Big East.
- Florida Atlantic at South Florida | Noon ET | ESPN
- Purdue at Ohio State | 1:00 p.m. ET | CBS
- Northwestern at Indiana | 3:00 p.m. ET | Fox Sports 1
- Memphis at SMU | 4:00 p.m. ET | ESPN
- Seton Hall at St. John’s | 5:00 p.m. ET | Fox Sports 1
- Rutgers at Minnesota | 6:30 p.m. ET | Big Ten Network
- Utah at UCLA | 7:00 p.m. ET | Fox Sports 1
Let’s have a Sunday.
Over the weekend, it was reported that the Kentucky Wildcats and coach Mark Pope had interest in former James Madison forward Justin McBride. Now, per Jacob Polacheck of Kentucky Sports Radio, McBride will take a visit to Lexington.
The report states that McBride will visit with Kentucky on Wednesday, Apr. 22. He had previously stated that he wanted to visit, but had to clear up some transcript issues first. It appears that things are worked out there now.
McBride is a 6’8″, 230 lb forward who has versatility. He averaged 15.3 points and 5.6 rebounds last season, but also made 40% of his three-point attempts, making him the kind of stretch big Pope likes to use. He could start, or be a valuable player off the bench.
Pope needs some recruiting wins, and he needs some depth for next year’s team. Right now, there are still more questions than answers, and Big Blue Nation is getting restless. We will update this story after his visit and more news becomes available.
Entering the weekend, Vanderbilt baseball had gotten swept in its only SEC series in which it hadn’t won the first game.
So the Commodores had a tough task in a series they badly needed after dropping the opener 5-2 on a walk-off grand slam after Vanderbilt’s best healthy starter, Connor Fennell, pitched well.
But the Commodores (24-17, 9-9 SEC) rebounded to take the series with an 8-7 win in the second game and a 13-6 win in the finale April 19. They did that despite not having any pitcher go more than three innings in either game. Though the pitching was still shaky at times — they issued more free passes than strikeouts in both of the wins — they worked out of enough jams to let the offense go to work.
Here’s what we learned from the series.
Will Hampton proves an unlikely hero for the offense
Vanderbilt got strong performances from a few of its typical top performers, including Braden Holcomb (6-for-13, four doubles) and Brodie Johnston (4-for-12, two home runs, three walks). But one of the biggest hits of the series came from the unlikeliest of sources.
Logan Johnstone was held out of the finale after colliding with Mike Mancini in Game 2, and in his place coach Tim Corbin opted to go with redshirt freshman Will Hampton in left field. Hampton had recorded just six college plate appearances, all of which were in nonconference games.
But Hampton reached in all three of his plate appearances against Kentucky, first on a single, then a walk. In the sixth inning, with the score tied, he came up with the bases loaded and two outs and blasted a grand slam, giving Vanderbilt its first lead.
Tyler Baird learns the ups and downs of being a closer
Freshman Tyler Baird has been Vanderbilt’s closer for the past three weeks, recording his first save April 2 against Texas A&M. But he learned the pitfalls that can come with that role in Game 1 against Kentucky. Summoned for an eight-out save with the Commodores leading 2-1, he retired the first five batters, but loaded the bases with nobody out in the ninth. He struck out the next two batters but then gave up the walk-off grand slam.
Baird returned for Game 3, this time attempting a five-out save and coming in with runners on first and second and one out with a three-run lead in the eighth inning. He allowed both inherited runners to score, but kept the lead and then had a scoreless ninth inning after Vanderbilt scored three runs in the top of the inning.
Baird’s emergence has been key for the Commodores, and the Game 3 bounce-back was especially important.
Vanderbilt’s RPI shows improvement
On April 15, Vanderbilt was 95th in RPI, a mark that wasn’t going to cut it for NCAA Tournament selection. But with a road series win against a Kentucky team that started the week in the top 20 of RPI, the Commodores moved all the way up to 75th, according to Warren Nolan.
While Vanderbilt will need to keep moving up — a top-50 mark would be ideal — the series win did a lot. In the next two weeks, it will face two top-five RPI teams in Alabama and Texas, giving more opportunity to improve its standing.
Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on X @aria_gerson.
Power forward has been one of the positions that Mark Pope and the Kentucky Wildcats have to fill with Andrija Jelavic and Mo Dioubate gone. The two players that Pope has had on campus at the power forward position are Syracuse’s Donnie Freeman and Colorado’s Sebastian Rancik. Both are really good players, but Freeman is better by a wide margin.
It has felt that entire time that Kentucky wanted Rancik as the backup to Freeman or a backup plan if they weren’t able to land Freeman. Well, Rancik just picked Florida State, so perhaps this is a sign that the Wildcats will land Freeman.
Big Blue Nation was torn on Rancik, but I do believe he would have been a really solid backup power forward. I personally didn’t want him to be the starting four for this team. It is clear that he wanted to go somewhere where he could be the guy at the four, so he will be heading to the ACC to play for FSU.
Now that Kentucky has missed on Rancik, it is very important that the Wildcats land Freeman soon. The problem with waiting on some of these players is the fact that the portal isn’t slowing down. If Pope targets two power forwards and misses on both of them, most of the good fours in the portal will be gone.
There will be some panic in Lexington if the Wildcats are not able to land Freeman, but I do believe the Wildcats are in a good spot to land the elite power forward. From the beginning, Freeman has been my top player for Kentucky in the portal, as he, plus Malachi Moreno, will give the Wildcats an elite frontcourt.
If Pope is able to land Freeman and Tyran Stokes to pair with Zoom Diallo, Alex Wilkins, Moreno, and Kam Williams, this could be the start of a really good team in Lexington. Hopefully, an announcement for where Freeman will transfer comes soon, and hopefully, this will be to play for Pope at Kentucky.
Fans of rival teams will say Pope “whiffed” on Rancik, but if this whiff was because the Wildcats are set to land Freeman soon, then it was more than worth it for Kentucky. If the Wildcats are able to land Freeman, it will officially be time for Big Blue Nation to start getting excited about the 2026-27 season. I expect a decision from Freeman to come within the next day or two.
Rancik would have been a solid backup four in Lexington but Freeman has been the guy from the beggining for this staff so if Kentucky lands him all is well. If the staff misses on Freeman not landing Rancik will look bad.
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