KSR's top takeaways from Kentucky's 81-47 victory at Buffalo

Kentucky got its first road win of the season as the Cats took down Buffalo 81-47 in what was dubbed as the Clara Strack homecoming game. The team visited her old high school, met with her fans up in Buffalo and of course, got a 34-point win in enemy territory.

Here are KSR’s top takeaways from Kentucky third win of the 2025-26 season.

Clara Strack’s career day is proof she’s one of the best bigs in the country

Sunday was all about Strack, both on and off the court. Aside from the extracurriculars, the 6-foot-5 Buffalo native put up a career high 27 points on 9-14 shooting (plus 8-11 shooting from the charity stripe), while grabbing 12 rebounds and blocking four shots along the way.

She was playing so well that the folks calling the game called her the best big in the game.

The ESPN+ commentators in the UK/Buffalo game on Clara Strack, the reigning SEC Defensive Player of the Year:

"We are watching the best center in all of college basketball." pic.twitter.com/ib9xJtWBZA

— Phoenix Stevens (@PStevensKSR) November 9, 2025

Instead of letting the grandeur of the weekend get to her — or the Buffalo players themselves — she kept her composure (for the most part) and let her work do the talking. The 2025 SEC Defensive Player of the Year might not only be one of the best fives in the SEC, but across the board.

Tonie Morgan’s 9 assists, 1 turnover outing is a huge deal for the offense

Did Tonie Morgan shoot the ball well against Buffalo? With a 2-7 night from the field, the answer to that question is no, but she did everything else — including her main role as the point guard — to near perfection.

The two-time former All-ACC point guard not only dished out nine assists in the win, but she did it while only turning the ball over once. That’s an assist-to-turnover ratio that will have her among the best distributors in the nation.

Clearly, she’s still adjusting to playing for a new coach, in a new system, with new pieces around her, but a 9-to-1 ratio is very, very promising for the rest of the season — not just for her individually, but for the team and the flow of the offense.

Three-point shooting was off again, but is the defense good enough to overcome that?

Kentucky went 17-36 from three-point range against Monmouth, so it was inevitable that the Cats would cool down just a bit from beyond the arc. However, they didn’t just cool down, they went cold. They shot just 5-29 (17%) from deep in Sunday’s win.

However, we’ve also seen that even with the poor shooting, Kentucky’s defense has been on point. Through three games, Kentucky is holding their opponents to 50.7 points per game and 30.9% shooting from the field. That’ll get it done.

Of course, we have to watch and see how things hold up through non-conference play, and specifically against tougher competition like Maryland and Louisville, but at the end of the day, things are looking very, very bright for the Cats on that end of the floor.