Brown decided to schedule its two biggest games of the non-conference schedule within nine days of each other. The Bears first traveled to Lawrence to take on a top-10 Kansas team on December 22 before flying to Lexington to take on a top-10 Kentucky team on Dec. 31 — arguably the two best home environments in college basketball in back-to-back matchups.

Quite the challenge ahead of the Ivy League schedule.

Weirdly enough, they were identical 34-point margins of victory for the blue bloods, KU pulling off an 87-53 win and UK pulling off an 88-54 win. Both games saw sluggish starts before the home favorite pulled away in blowout fashion down the stretch.

How did Brown head coach Mike Martin view the matchups?

“Trying to take a little bit of a step-back and just think of the big picture of the opportunity our programs had the last two games, playing in Kansas then playing here,” he said. “Great experience for our players. Great experience for everyone affiliated with our program.”

In his eyes, the Wildcats are as advertised — closer to the team that beat Duke and Gonzaga away from home than the one that got destroyed by Ohio State in New York City. After the offense hit a wall as of late and the defense regressed, Mark Pope’s group finally got things figured out going into the SEC schedule.

It was noticeable on both ends.

“I think Kentucky did a great job of making us uncomfortable from the very beginning. Offensively we struggled to really get into a flow and run offense. 23 turnovers led to 33 Kentucky points,” Martin said. “Obviously, it’s going to be hard to stay within reach when that happens so. I thought our half-court defense was actually pretty good. They scored a lot in transition off our turnovers. In the second half, they scored in every way possible so, we’ll learn from it, and I know we will be a lot better because of these last two experiences.”

What led to that dominant defensive effort that led to 23 forced turnovers with 14 steals?

“It starts at the point of attack. (Lamont) Butler and (Otega) Oweh are terrific defensive guards and obviously we have a terrific guard named Kino Lilly. You know, Kino was efficient offensively, but I think their pressure at the point of their defense, then obviously (Amari) Williams at the back end made it hard on us. They were trying to take us out of our Zoom action, they denied a lot of hand-offs. Then we got a couple back-cuts early, but it wasn’t enough to loosen them up.

“So, I think it starts with those three guys, then their entire team and scheme defensively deserves a lot of credit.”

For how quickly this Kentucky team was put together almost entirely through the transfer portal, Martin couldn’t be more impressed.

“They were ready, Kentucky, to play and it’s impressive to watch what they’ve done in a short amount of time with so many new players,” he said. “How cohesive they are and how they share the ball, the 18 assists for them and only five turnovers. It’s just super impressive to see.”

Can’t complain about a feel-good win to close out 2024.