Kentucky Embracing Physicality and Coming Together in Win Streak

by:Nick Roush•01/23/23•

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“Punching through the gray” is how Mark Stoops describes it. Oscar Tshiebwe simply says “fight.” When a team’s back is against the wall, there’s only one option. After falling to South Carolina, Kentucky embraced that option by coming together and playing physical basketball, resulting in three straight victories.

“We just had to become real with each other,” Lance Ware said after Saturday’s win over Texas A&M. “This isn’t going the way we want it to go — winning one game, then losing a game, and winning game. The feeling of losing isn’t fun. We all had that common goal. We don’t want to feel that anymore. Not saying that we’re never going to lose a game or anything, but we know what that feels like. We were down, we were at a low point… It’s all about how you bounce back.”

It’s a bounce back that you can feel more than you can see. Sure, Kentucky is taking and making more free throws and continuing to out-rebound opponents, but the evidence in the box score does not reflect the differences you can see on the court. Instead of using a trip to the Bahamas to galvanize the team, adversity has bonded that bridge, so to speak.

“Let’s take whatever negatives out there to be our motivation,” Tshiebwe told his teammates. “We know how good we are. We got many guys and so many teams we see that don’t have the talent we have. Let’s go to work. Now everybody believes in themselves. Now is time to help the team. We’re now together. I’m loving it.”

Kentucky Not Shying Away from Physicality

Following Kentucky’s loss at Alabama, Nate Oats shared how they took Oscar Tshiebwe out of the game. They went right at him. Every team since has tried to attack Oscar defensively, then throw bodies at him in various aspects when he’s on offense. Lance Ware knew A&M’s bigs would try to set the tone with physical play.

“Especially them trying to go at Oscar early and be physical with him, get him a quick foul. It kind of changes the dynamic of our team. But it’s something we’re getting better at,” Ware said. “We’re matching their physicality and obviously being more physical than them at points.”

Instead of letting the opponent determine how the game will be played, Kentucky is fighting back. Even when Buzz Williams sent three guys to box-out Oscar, he was getting boards.

“I don’t even know how I grabbed 17 rebounds because they were sending three people on me every time. I don’t know, sometimes the basketball just finds me. It just finds me, wherever I am, it just comes to me. I was fighting too,” Oscar said. “They got me out in the first half, I was in a little bit of foul trouble. Second half I just said, let me go fight.”

Kentucky is fighting, not for themselves, but for each other, and according to Oscar Tshiebwe, “That’s why the team now seems more focused.”