KSR's takeaways from Kentucky's hard-fought win vs. Texas A&M

It’s been 42 days since Kentucky basketball defeated Yale at home to win its fourth consecutive game, the last winning streak the program saw. That was December 10. And it was the only winning streak of the season, well over midway through.

The wins were coming, but not consistently. Stacking solid performances on top of each other was just a hard task for the Wildcats, and it resulted in an ugly 10-6 start to the year, with NCAA Tournament hopes vanishing by the game. No Quad 1 victories (0-5) and one Quad 4 loss against South Carolina, inarguably the worst team in the SEC. The resume was non-existent.

And then they took care of business on the road at No. 5 Tennessee. Then a 14-point home win vs. Georgia, a game the Wildcats were down as many as 11 in the first half. And now, a nine-point win against a tough, physical team in Texas A&M, who had won seven straight games entering the matchup. Quad 1, Quad 3 and Quad 2 wins, back-to-back-to-back. The team riddled with inconsistency struggles and zero identity is now playing its best basketball season of the year.

It was a 76-67 home victory against the Aggies that meant more than a single checkmark in the win column — and make no mistake about it, Kentucky needs those too. Bigger picture, it was a statement in terms of rotation, playing style and potential. For the first time weeks, it’s now OK to start thinking about what this team can be down the road and the path it needs to take to get there. A blueprint is there.

Basketball Benny lineup is here to stay

“Number 22, 1, 12, 0, 34, if you only looked at those guys in the last two games in comparison to their first four games, statistically a different team.”

Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams tried to be polite. He said he wasn’t trying to coach from the opposing bench or make headlines with his words, but from his perspective, the closing lineup of Cason Wallace, CJ Fredrick, Antonio Reeves, Jacob Toppin and Oscar Tshiebwe is just different. “Overwhelming evidence,” he said, that Kentucky got to the line more, rebounded better and played with a different pace with those five in the game. “It seemed as though they had a different collective thought of what they were going to accomplish.”

Purposeful basketball. Ball movement, spacing, shooting. An identity.

Wallace played 20 second-half minutes, Tshiebwe and Fredrick both with 19. Toppin had 18 — two minutes missed due to injury — while Reeves came in four minutes into the half and played the final 16. It’s the same closing lineup we saw vs. Georgia where the team put forth its best half of the season.

It’s a group John Calipari clearly trusts.

“The biggest thing is, you’ve got to guard all five guys,” the Kentucky head coach said after the win. “But there’s another guy on the court that you’ve got to pay special attention to. The kid, what’s his name? 34.”

Maybe the bigger statement? Sahvir Wheeler missed the Tennessee game due to injury, then played just 11 minutes vs. Georgia, one in the second half. Then vs. Texas A&M, an eight-minute effort with just one in the second half. Mind you, this is the same player with 10 games of at least 34 minutes this season — five being losses.

Calipari said after the game he likes Wheeler “when the game is faster” and “we need to get something up-and-down.” He loved his back-to-back assists to Chris Livingston in the first half, loves how he “mixes it up.”

… “But in most cases, [playing a guard like Wallace at point] gives you one more scorer on the court.”

That’s a statement, and his recent actions continue to back that up. Kentucky has its core five, the group that gives the team its best chance to win the rest of the season.

A historic 3-point effort

Kentucky finished the game with 32 attempts from three, 11 of those shots falling. It’s the last time the Wildcats have taken at least 30 attempts from deep since the 2011-12 season — a 33-shot, 12-make effort vs. Chattanooga on Dec. 11, 2011.

Before then, only two games with over 32 3-point attempts, both coming during the 2009-10 season — 33 vs. Arkansas and ETSU in the NCAA Tournament.

Calipari couldn’t believe it after the game. “Another of my teams took more? How many did we make? … Did we win the game? I’m guessing we didn’t.”

The Wildcats won all three by at least 25 points.

“I guess we should be shooting more threes,” Calipari joked.

But again, why? Spacing with more shooters on the floor. Texas A&M’s gameplan was to take Oscar Tshiebwe out of the game offensively — he scored seven points, but still had 17 rebounds — and force Kentucky to beat them from the outside. 11 makes from beyond the arc was enough to make that happen — and considering the long list of wide-open looks the team missed, it should have been more.

Antonio Reeves hits the shots in a big game

On the year, Reeves is averaging 12.1 points per game on 41% shooting and 39% from three. Solid numbers for the Illinois State transfer on the surface.

Taking a closer look, though, he went 1-7 against Michigan State, 4-13 against Gonzaga, 2-13 against UCLA and 3-6 against Missouri (0-3 3PT). His 20-point, 7-13 FG, 4-7 3PT effort at Alabama looks good on the box score, but the majority of his makes came late when the game was out of reach.

Point being, he was torching the nets against lesser competition, but struggled under the bright lights when Kentucky needed his scoring most.

He followed it up by going for 18 at No. 5 Tennessee (4-10 FG, 2-6 3PT, 8-8 FT), then went for a season-high 23 points on 8-17 shooting and 5-11 from three vs. Texas A&M.

“Man, my three ball was going in today,” Reeves told KSR after the game. “Teammates were looking for me down the stretch and a couple of shots went in for me.”

The timing of it all is significant, as well. When he came out at the 7:20 mark in the first half, the Aggies proceeded to go on a 14-2 run to go up six. He returned with 4:09 to go before the break and the Wildcats had the game tied just 50 seconds later. Then in the second half, Reeves came off the bench with Kentucky up three (40-37) with 15:41 to go. He stayed in the rest of the way and helped lead the Wildcats to the nine-point win, scoring 12 of his 23 points in that stretch.

CJ Fredrick didn’t have a hot shooting night, finishing the day just 3-12 overall and 2-10 from three. “Missed every shot in the first half, and I said, ‘You better keep shooting them or I won’t play you,'” Calipari said. And he sure did keep it flying.

It helps when you have wide-open looks, something that happens when you have a teammate like Reeves making shots at the rate he did. Those roles will be reversed at times to close out the year, too. Reeves is going to go cold while Fredrick heats up. If not, you have Wallace to lean on — he was cold, too. Toppin can heat up from the mid-range and is emerging as a clear above-the-rim threat — as he should’ve been all along — while Oscar is Oscar.

Go back to that Calipari quote. “You’ve got to guard all five guys.” The odds of Wallace, Fredrick, Reeves, Toppin and Tshiebwe all going cold on the same night is slim. Tonight, it happened to be Reeves’ night.

Jacob Toppin with an underrated performance

The versatile forward got torched a bit early on the defensive end, but really settled in as the game went on. Toppin finished the day with 17 points on 7-12 shooting and 1-2 from three to go with four rebounds and three assists. He was knocking down jumpers out of the high post, throwing down dunks and even hit an open three, his sixth of the year.

“He’s getting better, isn’t he? He’s getting better, learning to mix it up,” Calipari said after the game.

And he is. Toppin was unplayable to open the SEC schedule, struggling with confidence and letting it affect his engagement on the floor. He couldn’t shoot, wasn’t defending and his body language was poor. The 6-foot-10 forward was actively hurting his team.

He bounced back with a combined 45 points vs. Louisville and LSU before regressing at Alabama. He wasn’t an offensive threat in Knoxville, but still had eight rebounds and five assists in the win. Then he followed it up with an 11-point, 11-rebound, four-assist effort vs. Georgia before putting together yet another strong performance against A&M.

Like the team as a whole, he’s stacking solid performances on top of each other, a necessary development as we inch closer to postseason play.