Kentucky

Kentucky gets early signature win at Champions Classic against Duke | Opinion

Published

1 year ago

November 13, 2024

Kentucky gets early signature win at Champions Classic against Duke | Opinion

ATLANTA — We’re going to have plenty of time, like maybe a decade or two, to talk about Cooper Flagg. And in the aftermath of Tuesday’s Champions Classic, the presumptive No. 1 pick is going to get his first real taste of what the world of sports takes is all about.

That’s how it works when you live up to the hype for 39 minutes but mishandle a ball in a crowd and then dribble it off your foot with the game on the line. Better get used to it.

But Flagg is 17 years old and Duke is still Final Four caliber team. It’s way too soon to start nitpicking.

It is not, however, too early to render a judgment on the other big storyline from a remarkable night of college basketball.

Mark Pope? Yeah, he’s the real deal, too. Just a couple weeks into the college basketball season, he’s already made Kentucky basketball fun again.

It’s been awhile.

“This group is special,” Pope said after Kentucky’s 77-72 victory, giving him a signature win right out of the gates and at a time when there was — and probably still is — some uncertainty about whether he’s up to this mammoth job.

Time will tell. But one thing you can already see: There’s a major vibe shift around Kentucky basketball.

Freed from the tension of John Calipari’s stubbornness, his deteriorating relationship with Kentucky’s administration and his antagonistic posture toward a fan base that cares like no other in sports, Big Blue Nation will not find this kind of basketball difficult to embrace.

It’s beautiful, it’s energetic, and most of all its drama-free.

Yeah, Kentucky needed a change. They got it. And it looks as if they’re really, really going to like it.

Nothing against Calipari, a Hall of Fame coach whose first 10 years there were phenomenal. But the whole operation got stale, it got contentious, and his last four seasons were a slow-motion train wreck that ended with some embarrassing NCAA tournament defeats.

Still, when Calipari left for Arkansas, there were no guarantees about how it would go for Big Blue Nation. After all the big names said no, the initial reaction to Pope was strongly negative.

Despite being part of Kentucky’s 1996 national title team, he was still a coach with no NCAA tournament victories in nine years at Utah Valley and BYU.

Kentucky fans, of course, quickly embraced Pope because there was really no other choice. He wasn’t just one of theirs, he reminded them what that actually meant. For 15 years, the program was about the Calipari brand. From the first moment he got the job, Pope was determined to flip that back around and make Kentucky the star of the show.

That’s a great way to start a honeymoon, but you also have to show it on the floor. And with a roster that Pope pulled together largely from the transfer portal, there was a scenario where Year 1 was basically a write-off.

“Nobody knew each other,” Pope said.

But you can already see that Pope is really good at three things that will serve him well as Kentucky’s coach.

The first is that he is incredibly dialed in to how players interact with each other and feed off each other. He talked, for instance, about the human nature for people to pull away from problems and the intentionality it takes to do the opposite. You saw that Tuesday when Kentucky got down 10 points in the first half and just kept hanging in the game until the experience and physicality of its older players took over in the final minutes

“I felt like it was really special for us,” said senior Andrew Carr, a forward who transferred from Wake Forest and scored 17 points with two huge and-1 finishes in the final minutes. “Not everything was going our way, and coach talks about turning into each other, the people that matter, and the closer we get it’s harder to beat us.”

The second big trait of a Pope team is the offense. It just flows. For years, one of the big frustrations fans had with Calipari is that the ball didn’t move enough, there wasn’t enough spacing and he didn’t emphasize 3-point shooting until his final season. With Pope, that’s not an issue. The ball zips around, guys move off the ball and everyone has the green light to shoot when open. This was the ballgame: Kentucky made 10-of-25 threes to Duke’s 4-of-23.

And the third thing is that Kentucky just plays really, really hard, which it will need to do against most teams. The Wildcats have some good pieces, but they won’t have a huge talent advantage in most of their big games — and they certainly didn’t against a Duke team with multiple future NBA draft picks. That’s arguably the biggest reason why Kentucky’s effort just wore down Duke to the point where Flagg was too exhausted to execute down the stretch after scoring 26 points and grabbing 12 rebounds in 32 minutes.

“Guys went and sat in the locker room (at halftime) and it was constructive,” Pope said. “Guys do most of the fixing before I get in the locker room. It was just sheer resolve and determination. There was a lot of ebb and flow, and the game almost swung away from us, and the guys reeled it in.”

It’s still too early in the college basketball season to draw a whole lot of conclusions about where either Kentucky or Duke is going to end up. But for Pope, a man who arguably has the best but toughest job in college basketball, it was a validating night.

He said after the game that he’d have felt the same way about his team whether they won or lost, and that’s probably true. But beating Duke is no small thing, and the amount of belief and credibility Kentucky will get from this win will have a cascading effect on the fan base, on recruiting and on the confidence of a team that believes it might have something special.

All in all, Big Blue Nation couldn’t have asked for anything more.

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Kentucky

Kentucky vs. West Virginia – Second round NCAA tournament extended highlights

Published

10 hours ago

March 23, 2026

Press Room

Kentucky vs. West Virginia – Second round NCAA tournament extended highlights

Women’s Basketball

March 23, 2026

Kentucky vs. West Virginia – Second round NCAA tournament extended highlights

March 23, 2026

Watch the highlights from No. 5 Kentucky and No. 4 West Virginia’s matchup in the second round of the 2026 women’s NCAA tournament.

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Kentucky

5 worst moments of March Madness Round 2, from Tyler Tanner’s miss to Kentucky flop

Published

22 hours ago

March 23, 2026

Press Room

5 worst moments of March Madness Round 2, from Tyler Tanner’s miss to Kentucky flop

The top-seeded teams dominated the second round of the NCAA Tournament, with the lone double-digit seed advancing to the Sweet 16 being Texas, one of the most iconic brands in college sports.

Texas being a “Cinderella” in 2025-26 is fitting for where men’s college basketball is as a sport amid the name, image and likeness era. The lone double digit seed to reach the Sweet 16 last season was Arkansas, which is led by one of the greatest coaches ever in John Calipari and was riddled with talent.

No. 12 seed High Point gave its best shot at breaking that mold on Saturday, March 21, before ultimately falling to No. 4 Arkansas 94-88 in a highly competitive game. No. 11 VCU also had a chance to be the latest mid-major to reach the Sweet 16, but was dominated by No. 3 Illinois 76-55.

Only 16 teams remain, with just one weekend before the Final Four returns to Indianapolis. Here’s a look at our five worst moments of the NCAA Tournament’s second round in 2026:

5 worst moments of NCAA Tournament second round

Vanderbilt star Tyler Tanner nearly made an all-time shot for the win against No. 4 Nebraska in the second round, but the ball rimmed out after multiple bounces off the backboard and rim.

Tanner was already having a career performance, as he finished with 27 points and four assists with four steals. With 2.2 seconds he caught the inbounds pass on the opposite side of the court before heaving it from behind halfcourt, which barely missed and resulted in Vanderbilt’s entire bench falling to their knees in disappointment.

Nebraska’s Braden Frager hit a game-winning driving layup to hand his school its second-ever NCAA Tournament win and first Sweet 16 appearance. Unfortunately, one of Vanderbilt or Nebraska was headed home after one of the best second-round games in recent memory.

“We were in an inch away from being in the Sweet 16,” Vandy coach Mark Byington said. “It’s going to take a while for us to get over.”

Florida was shocked by No. 9 seed Iowa in the second round, falling 73-72 after Alvaro Folgueiras hit a game-winning 3-pointer with less than five seconds remaining. It’s a brutal finish to the season for the Gators, who played their way back onto the 1-seed line after winning 16 of their last 17 regular-season games.

Florida looked like a top national championship contender, especially with its impressive frontcourt of Alex Condon, Thomas Haugh and Rueben Chinyelu. But sometimes March Madness strikes, and unfortunately it did for Florida before the first weekend came to a close.

Iowa ended the game on a 7-3 run, which was ultimately the difference in the back-and-forth, highly competitive game.

Kentucky makes the bad kind of history

While Kentucky survived a scare against Santa Clara in the first round, it took a wild shot from Otega Oweh at the buzzer to force overtime. The Wildcats kept within distance of Iowa State in the first half of their game on March 22, before the Cyclones pulled away for a dominant 82-63 win.

Kentucky played sloppy basketball against Iowa State, setting a program record for most turnovers (20) in an NCAA Tournament game. The 19-point loss was also Kentucky’s largest loss in a March Madness game since 1972.

Second-year coach Mark Pope is facing a pivotal offseason, especially with Oweh exhausting his eligibility.

David Punch’s nose

TCU star David Punch took a shot to the face from Duke’s Cameron Boozer late in the second half of a close game on Saturday, March 21, and wasn’t the same after returning to the game. Boozer was called for a Flagrant 1 on the play, although Punch was unable to shoot the free-throws as he returned to the bench with blood flowing down his face.

Punch Jr. briefly went to the locker room, missing the remainder of the first half before returning in the final 20 minutes of the game.

TCU trailed 38-34 at halftime, before falling apart and losing 81-58 to Duke to end its season. And despite coming off a 16-point, 13-rebound performance against Ohio State in the first round, he was held to four points on 1-of-10 shooting against the Blue Devils.

High Point’s season comes to an end

High Point’s program-best season came to an end against No. 4 Arkansas, as it fell 94-88 after winning its first-ever NCAA Tournament game in the first round. The Panthers dominated the regular season, finishing the regular season 30-4 with a Big South Conference Tournament win.

Chase Johnston became the latest March Madness legend after helping High Point to a win over Wisconsin, and Rob Martin channeled his inner-Kemba Walker with 30 points and five assists in High Point’s loss to Arkansas.

High Point was putting on for mid-major programs in the NCAA Tournament and hopes to continue its momentum fresh off a respect-earning trip.

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Kentucky

No. 2 seed Iowa State shuts down No. 7 Kentucky in 82-63 NCAA tourney victory

Published

1 day ago

March 22, 2026

Press Room

No. 2 seed Iowa State shuts down No. 7 Kentucky in 82-63 NCAA tourney victory

ST. LOUIS — Tamin Lipsey knew he had to step up for Iowa State with All-America forward Joshua Jefferson sitting on the bench, his sprained left ankle still encased in a boot, as the Cyclones played Kentucky on Sunday for a spot in the Sweet 16.

Lipsey, who grew up in the shadows of the Iowa State campus in Ames, answered with the finest game of his four-year career.

The senior guard poured in a career-high 26 points, tied a career high with 10 assists, and led a suffocating defense that shut down the Wildcats in the second half, allowing the second-seeded Cyclones to pull away for an 82-63 victory in the NCAA Tournament.

“All the guys knew we had to step up in different ways,” Lipsey said, “however that presented to us.”

Lipsey didn’t do it alone, of course — he needed someone scoring to pile up all those assists. Milan Momcilovic scored 20 points and Nate Heise, getting the start in Jefferson’s place, added 12 to help the Cyclones (29-7) advance to a Midwest Region semifinal against either third-seeded Virginia or No. 6 seed Tennessee on Friday night in Chicago.

It will be the eighth Sweet 16 trip for the Cyclones and the third under T.J. Otzelberger, though the question now is whether they will be whole for it. Jefferson, their second-leading scorer and top rebounder, is scheduled to have an MRI exam on Monday.

“We’ll see how that goes and take it from there,” Otzelberger said.

Kentucky (22-14) jumped to a 20-9 lead in the opening minutes Sunday before Iowa State fought back to take a 31-30 halftime lead.

The Wildcats were still within 46-40 with 13½ minutes to play when the Cyclones forced three of the Wildcats’ 20 turnovers in quick succession. They converted all three into baskets at the other end, part of a decisive 13-1 run, which not only allowed Iowa State to seize control but also seemed to finally deflate Kentucky.

The Wildcats had been buzzing after a buzzer-beater from Otega Oweh forced overtime in a first-round victory over Santa Clara.

“We had a tough time finding baskets and more importantly we had a real tough time getting a stop,” Kentucky coach Mark Pope said. “They shot 50 percent in the second half from 3, and they played really well. You’re not going to win games when you give up 51 in the second half, and there’s a lot of reasons that happened.”

Oweh followed up his 35-point performance against the Broncos with 18 against the Cyclones, playing most of the second half in foul trouble. Denzel Aberdeen led the Wildcats with 20 points, though the pair of guards didn’t get a whole lot more help.

“We didn’t play fully hard for the full 40 minutes,” Aberdeen said, “and we had to do a better job.”

For two teams that can score in bunches, there was little elegance for much of their first matchup since the 2012 NCAA tourney, when the Wildcats beat Iowa State in the second round on their way to winning the national championship.

The Cyclones missed their first 11 tries from beyond the 3-point arc. Kentucky had 12 turnovers in the first half.

“We got a little disoriented,” Pope said, “and that’s what Iowa State does. They increased their pressure and we turned it over 12 times in the first half, and kind of contributed to our own demise.”

Iowa State eventually began driving to the basket and picking up fouls, and generated offense from the free-throw line until its shots started to fall. That began just before the break, and Heise’s buzzer-beating 3 gave the Cyclones a 31-30 advantage.

They went on to outscore Kentucky 51-33 after halftime to coast into the semifinals of the Midwest Region.

“We knew we had to be at our best. I’m proud of our guys,” Otzelberger said. “Felt like the game didn’t start the way we’d like but on defense, our pressure as the game wore on paid dividends for us. We generated turnovers and scored off our defense.”

Up next

Iowa State and Virginia have split four previous meetings, though the Cavaliers won the most recent matchup and the only one in the NCAA Tournament. The Cavaliers cruised 84-71 in the Sweet 16 on March 25, 2016, before losing to Syracuse in the Elite Eight.

The Cyclones beat Tennessee during the 1969 season but they’ve lost the last two to the Volunteers, the first during a tournament in December 1977 and the most recent on January 27, 2018, during the Big 12-SEC Challenge.

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