Louisville’s best player was the best player, and Kentucky’s wasn’t

For many years, Kentucky had all of the star power on its side of the rivalry. You know the names from John Calipari’s dominant run in the Kentucky-Louisville series, then Lamont Butler etched his name in the Battle of the Bluegrass history with a career-high 33 points and a perfect game from the field in last year’s win.

However, this year, Louisville had the dude. We knew going in that the Wildcats couldn’t allow Mikel Brown Jr. his college basketball coming-out party, but the five-star point guard was the difference in a 96-88 Louisville win that flipped the rivalry.

Brown did most of his work early, scoring 20 first-half points as Louisville built up a lead before halftime that it wouldn’t give back. The true freshman finished with 29, carried by 10-of-11 shooting at the free throw line. He had complete command of the game. Even when Kentucky made a push, Brown seemed to have an answer, whether a pull-up jumper, a drive to the basket, or a kick to one of his teammates. Ryan Conwell scored 24 points alongside him.

Kentucky wasn’t bad offensively. Denzel Aberdeen scored 26 points, Collin Chandler hit four three-pointers, and the Wildcats shot 47 percent for the game. But Louisville’s backcourt was the aggressor, forcing 14 turnovers and scoring 19 points off of Kentucky’s mistakes. The Cardinals led for almost 38 minutes of the game, and every time Kentucky tried to steal momentum, Brown or Conwell had a response.

Mark Pope summed it up afterward. “Mikel Brown is a really special talent to be as young as he is and play the game the way he does,” Pope said. “He’s got a really, really terrific change of speed and first step, so it was really difficult for us to keep him in front of us. He actually finished the ball well at the rim tonight, which was really good.”

Pope added that Cromwell was terrific as well.

Louisville’s star shined while Kentucky’s struggled

For as dominant as Mikel Brown Jr. looked in red, Otega Oweh had one of his toughest games in a Kentucky uniform. The Preseason SEC Player of the Year looked lethargic and uninspired, finishing with 12 points on 4-of-13 shooting, 1-of-6 from three, and a team-worst -16 in the +/- column in 28 minutes.

Oweh turned it over a team-high five times in a game decided by turnovers, never finding his rhythm offensively as Louisville’s guards crowded him and forced him into tough shots and costly mistakes.

Louisville won because its best player played like the best player on the floor, and Kentucky lost because its best player didn’t.