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KSR's top takeaways from Kentucky's 107-59 blowout win over Valpo to start 2-0

Jack PIlgrimby: Jack Pilgrim12 hours ago
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Valparaiso vs Kentucky Basketball on 11/7/2025 - Dr. Michael Huang, Kentucky Sports Radio/On3

Never apologize for starting the season 2-0 — especially not in the BBN United Tipoff Classic presented by Kentucky Tourism. These opportunities don’t come by often, so you can’t take them for granted when they do. That’s exactly how the Wildcats handled things at Rupp Arena on Friday, Kentucky defeating Valparaiso by 48 points in a 107-59 victory for the blue and white.

How did it all happen, transitioning us perfectly into next week’s rivalry matchup vs. Louisville at the KFC Yum! Center? Are we feeling better about that in-state battle after seeing the latest product with Jaland Lowe back on the floor and the team inching closer to full strength?

KSR has the takeaways from Rupp Arena following the blowout win.

Malachi Moreno got his first double-double

Just how deep is this Kentucky team? The backup center, a freshman, earned his first career double-double as the leading scorer with 18 points on 8-14 shooting to go with 10 rebounds, two assists, one block and zero turnovers in 21 minutes.

Taking on a Valpo team starting four players standing 6’7″ or taller and another two off the bench, Moreno absolutely owned the post, gobbling up every loose ball that came his way while also finishing everything around the rim — including a couple of lobs for alley-oop slams. The 7’0″ rookie isn’t the quickest and he doesn’t boast the highest vertical, but in terms of body positioning and control, understanding spacing and leverage, he plays like an upperclassman and future pro.

And now through two games as a Wildcat, he’s averaging 11.5 points and 9.5 rebounds per contest. Not too shabby for an 18-year-old.

“He’s been our best rebounder on both sides of the ball pretty consistently from the very get go,” Mark Pope said. “He’s taking that challenge really seriously, and it’s fun to watch him grow. He’s young, he’ll have ups and downs, but his ceiling is really, really high. … I thought the way he calculated the game was really good.”

How does this affect Brandon Garrison?

Not at all! If it wasn’t his best game as a Wildcat, it certainly belongs in the conversation. BG was phenomenal, adding 12 points on a perfect 4-4 shooting overall and 4-4 at the line while adding four rebounds, four assists and a block in 18 minutes. The energy was there, as it always is, but Garrison’s ability to balance making the right decisions as a scorer and facilitator while also simply executing was a clear jump from what we’ve seen from him up to this point. Maturity was a major talking point for the junior forward all offseason, and against Valpo, he looked grown up.

The way Moreno and BG are both playing, Pope will have some seriously tough decisions to make when Jayden Quaintance is ready to make his debut in a month or so. All three guys can play at a high level.

Jaland Lowe is a bigger difference-maker than we realized

In his first official appearance as a Kentucky Wildcats, Lowe went for five assists and zero turnovers while adding six points, two rebounds and a steal in 18 minutes. He still has some rust to knock off as a scorer — he finished just 2-7 overall, but had a couple of whoa moments getting to the rim. In terms of facilitiating, though, his impact was felt far beyond the box score. There is a gravity to him that is underrated, getting paint touches at will, leading to impossible decisions for defenders choosing whether to play him on floaters, layups, lobs or kick-outs. He’s good at all of the above, and showed a lot of that off in his debut.

And this is the ramp-up version of Lowe, coming off the bench on a pitch count. What about when he’s able to truly run the show?

“Most of us mere mortals dream about being able to move on the floor as quickly as he can and just spread the way he can,” Pope said. “… He’s just got unbelievable vision. He just throws lasers and darts everywhere. They are on-time, on-target passes. … It’s NBA level.”

Otega Oweh lived up to the SEC Preseason Player of the Year hype

Speaking of transitioning out of the ramp-up process, it finally feels like Oweh is back to full strength and playing like the legitimate All-SEC star we know he is. He came out with an edge, looking to play off two feet and finishing through contact while attacking the glass and getting after it defensively as a do-it-all standout, finishing with 15 points on 6-10 shooting to go with five boards, three assists and two turnovers in 22 minutes.

Off-ball engagement was poor against Nicholls and Oweh carried himself like someone going through the motions against low-major competition. It happens — and he still managed to go for 13 points, three rebounds and a steal, if that tells you anything about his talent. The counting stats weren’t much different, but the difference in approach was noticeable.

Shooting is no longer a disaster — including free throws!

My goodness, can we talk about the ball finally falling through the hoop for a change? The Wildcats shot just 30-112 (26.7 percent) from three in four outings with no individual performance better than 31.0 percent against No. 1 Purdue. Volume was essentially where it needed to be, but efficiency was nowhere close. They never expressed legitimate concern and promised to continue firing away, but was that a good plan?

It proved to be against the Beacons, going 11-28 for a smooth 39.3 percent with six different players knocking down threes and two hitting three-plus. The leaders? Collin Chandler back at it with 14 points on 4-8 from deep, followed by Jasper Johnson with nine points on 3-4 from three.

It wasn’t just the perimeter shooting, either. Free throws have been a problem up to this point, as well, coming off a 12-22 day in the opener vs. Nicholls. This time, Kentucky did its job, making 22-26 attempts for a hit rate of 84.6 percent — high volume and efficiency, led by 5-5 from Denzel Aberdeen and 4-4 from Garrison. Even Moreno, coming off a 1-6 debut at the line, managed to go 2-4 for a slight improvement.

You don’t break a Pope single-half scoring record in the first half — they had never gone for 58 points in 20 minutes — without some good shooting numbers to work with. They took care of business with 54/39/85 splits we will take all day, every day, especially if it means the defense is going to hold steady.

Defense continues to separate itself

Did you know that Kentucky has allowed 59 points or fewer in each of its first two games of a season for the first time since 2014-15? As bad as the offense was against Nicholls, specifically in the first half, the Wildcats were terrific defensively, holding the Colonels to an abysmal 30.2 percent from the field and 16.7 percent from three. They only scored 15 points in the first half and shot 12 percent overall while hitting one of 14 attempts from deep.

This time around? Another spectacular 28.4 percent showing overall to match a 23.5 percent clip from beyond the arc. Only one Beacon hit the double-figure scoring mark, Rakim Chaney finishing with 15 points on 5-10 shooting, with just one other player on the roster shooting at least 50 percent from the field individually.

As good as the Wildcats were offensively this time around, they were once again even better on the other end of the floor.

“I was really proud of the guys defensive effort,” Pope said. “We had some lapses, which I would like us to keep this standard every single possession for the rest of our lives. And that is our goal. But I was proud of the effort.”

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2025-11-08