KSR's top takeaways from Kentucky's season-changing win at Tennessee

With Kentucky desperate for a turnaround, the Wildcats may have saved their season with a statement win in Knoxville, defeating No. 5 Tennessee in a rock fight inside Thompson-Boling Arena. On the day Chris Lofton’s jersey was retired and Allan Houston and Candace Parker were honored, UK found a way to ruin the party, winning 63-56 for its first quality win of the season.

It was a performance that checked off some of Kentucky’s biggest areas of struggle this season. Slow start? Check. Tennessee jumped out to a quick 8-0 run, capitalizing on the Wildcats’ missed shots and defensive lapses. UK fought back to tie it up and built on that momentum. After a back-and-forth stretch that saw 12 different lead changes, the ‘Cats closed out the half on a 12-3 run to take a 33-26 lead.

Mental toughness? Check. After Kentucky led by as many as nine, Tennessee fought back to retake the lead with 12 minutes to go, then again with 9:30 left. The Vols tied it again with 5:50 remaining and even had it down to two with just 1:08 to go. UK had every opportunity to let go of the rope, but didn’t. And it resulted in the team’s biggest win of the season — one away from home, at that. Another check.

How did things come together for the Wildcats in Knoxville? KSR has the takeaways.

Wallace and Toppin in, Wheeler and Collins out

In the days leading up to the game, all eyes were on Cason Wallace (back spasms) and Jacob Toppin (shoulder), whether they’d be able to suit up in Knoxville. The standout freshman was ready to give it a go and the senior forward felt up for it after shootaround, good news for the Wildcats in a crucial matchup.

The bad news? Two new players popped up on the injury report, with Sahvir Wheeler (shoulder) and Daimion Collins (foot) both declared out leading up to the opening tip. As a result, Wallace was forced to slide over to point guard, with CJ Fredrick, Chris Livingston, Jacob Toppin and Oscar Tshiebwe making up the other starters.

Down two rotation pieces, John Calipari had to look for help at the end of the bench, especially when foul trouble and further injury hit. Nine players saw the floor in total and eight played at least seven minutes, seven with at least 13.

Officiating was a disaster

More on the foul trouble part of that. A combined 42 fouls were called in 40 minutes of a regulation basketball game. Insanity. Tennessee has developed an identity of fouling on every possession and daring the officials to call them all. And while 24 fouls on the Vols sounds like a lot, it doesn’t justify the number of missed holds and slaps and yanks, along with the unbelievable number of flops called in UT’s favor.

Yes, Santiago Vescovi, looking at you. And Uros Plavsic, objectively a dirty player who could have fouled out three times factoring in non-calls. Lame behavior enabled by the officiating crew.

But that’s not why I’m bringing up the refs or even the specific calls — who wants to waste energy on officiating in a rivalry win on the road? Honestly, it’s just to set up the real reason Kentucky was able to pull off this victory.

Kentucky wins it at the free-throw line

When you get in a rock fight where fouls are going to be called seemingly every time down the floor, you’ve got to take advantage when you’re given free opportunities for points at the line. Had you told me going in that Kentucky — a 65.6% free-throw shooting team on the year — would take 25 shots at the line in Knoxville, I’d ask you how bad the loss was.

And to be fair, the team’s season average would result in just 16 makes at the line. It would also indicate a tough, physical game on both ends of the floor, a key struggle for Kentucky all season. And away from home in a tough road environment like Thompson-Boling Arena, a crowd waiting to feed off miscues like a vulture? Yeah, no shot.

Instead, the Wildcats turned in their best performance at the line all season, knocking down 22 of 25 attempts for a rate of 88.0%. That’s the difference of six makes off the year average in a seven-point win.

The timing was crucial, too, with Kentucky knocking down seven of its last eight attempts at the line — all in the final 3:30.

Look at the losses this season. 16-24 vs. Michigan State, 12-16 at Gonzaga, 5-13 vs. UCLA, 15-24 at Missouri, 5-8 at Alabama, 7-14 vs. South Carolina. Only hit the 75% mark once in those games. This team has died at the free-throw line this season, and it had yet another chance to in Knoxville.

Instead, the Wildcats collectively rose to the occasion — six players with at least two makes at the line, led by Antonio Reeves with eight makes on eight attempts.

Antonio Reeves and CJ Fredrick finally step up

Reeves wasn’t just clutch at the line, he also knocked down some big jumpers to give Kentucky a much-needed offensive boost. So did CJ Fredrick. Two players the Wildcats have been waiting to see do what they do best in big games, something that just hasn’t happened yet this season. This time around, though, they were both there to lead the team to a win.

Reeves got things rolling for Kentucky initially with a 3-pointer to put points on the board, followed by Fredrick with eight straight points and 10 overall in the first half. He’d finish with 13 points on 4-11 shooting, 3-9 from three and 2-2 from the line to go with two rebounds and an assist in 37 minutes.

As for Reeves, his biggest damage came late in the second half, scoring 13 points on three field-goal makes and six free throws in the final 8:31. “Antonio was the most impactful player,” John Calipari said after the win. “He did great.”

This team can’t have a real season turnaround without Reeves and Fredrick making shots. There’s no other way to put it. As the lone shooters on the team — others can make shots, but not at the efficiency and volume they can — this team will go as far or short as those two take them. Make shots and Kentucky has a chance to battle in the SEC. Miss and the team is, for lack of a better word, toast.

For the first time this season, they both made the shots the Wildcats needed to win. And goodness, did it come at the right time.

A scouting report domination

For all that has been said this week about game-planning and scouting struggles within the Kentucky coaching staff, it’s only fair to give credit where it’s due in this one. Associate to the Head Coach Bruiser Flint spoke to the media Friday and said this game would not just come down to scoring against an elite Tennessee defense. Instead, the focus was on winning the rebounding battle and defending the three. In games they’ve lost, the Volunteers have struggled in those two areas specifically.

How’d things go today? UK held UT to just three makes on 21 attempts from three (14.3%) and nearly doubled up the competition on the glass, winning that battle 43-23.

“If we can make them make tough threes and keep them off the backboard, that’d help,” Flint said.

And that’s exactly how things unfolded.

19 turnovers in a win

The Wildcats got the job done, but that doesn’t mean things weren’t sloppy. How often can you win a game turning the ball over 19 times with only 14 assists, especially with your starting point guard out? Errant passes and offensive fouls padded those numbers, sure, and some bad calls didn’t help, either. Still, though, it says a lot about a team to be able to win how this one did given the circumstances.

Does the team’s season-altering win in Sahvir Wheeler’s absence change things about how the team is run moving forward? The lineup of Cason Wallace, CJ Fredrick, Antonio Reeves, Jacob Toppin and Oscar Tshiebwe has been a fan favorite all season long, and this performance certainly won’t kill that buzz. It comes with the territory, unfortunately.

There is something to be said about the team’s ball movement and spacing, the efficiency in which the team moved with and without the ball. Things happen when the ball doesn’t stick, even if that sometimes results in sloppy turnovers. It was out of necessity today, less iso-heavy with limited ball-handling options, and it’s hard to argue the product wasn’t better — against the No. 1 defense in college basketball, no less. No time to dribble the air out of the ball and launch prayers at the end of the shot clock. The Wildcats had to work off screens and maximize ball movement to create scoring opportunities.

Only four teams had hit the 60-point mark against Tennessee this season. Considering the team’s scoring issues all season, Kentucky becoming the fifth is nothing to scoff at.

Progress.