Kentucky survives off-night from Oscar Tshiebwe, Antonio Reeves

On3 imageby:Tyler Thompson02/04/23

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If I had told you before the game that Kentucky would beat Florida despite only getting eight total points from Oscar Tshiebwe and Antonio Reeves, would you believe me? Kentucky’s leading scorers struggled tonight vs. the Gators, but the Cats were able to pull out the 72-67 victory. Both players finished with four points each, Oscar going 2-14 from the floor and Reeves 2-5. Oscar still pulled in 15 rebounds and dished three assists, but finished dead last in plus/minus efficiency at -5. He fouled out with 1:38 remaining.

“Did he only have four?” John Calipari said when informed of Oscar’s stat line. “Ooh, he missed a bunch. But that’s alright. You know what, he was one of the happiest guys in that locker room.”

Oscar won the first two rounds vs. Colin Castleton last season, but this year, Florida’s big man got the best of him. Castleton finished with a game-high 25 points (9-16 FG, 7-7 FT), 8 rebounds, and 5 assists in 37 minutes.

“We doubled them,” Florida coach Todd Golden said of the Gators’ plan to limit Oscar. “Colin, I think he’s one of, if not the best, defensive players in the country. He’s proven that all year by his block numbers and by our two-point field-goal percentage as a defense. We liked that match-up, one on one for us on the defensive side of the ball. Colin has gotten so much better defensively than he was last year. Obviously, we wanted to make him turn over his right shoulder and finish that way.

“Oscar is a lot more effective within five feet than he is outside of five feet. So, we’re trying to make him get catches away from the rim. That way, we didn’t do a good enough job on the glass with him. He still got seven offensive rebounds. It’s kind of what he does, but I thought we did a great job collectively, limiting his opportunities. For him to go to two for fourteen. You know, without doubling I thought Colin had a great game defensively.”

“Just be as aggressive as possible,” Castleton said of his approach to slowing Oscar down. “I feel like just limit the closest catches to the basket, being able to get around the rim. He’s super effective right now and he’s a strong guy. He’s just one of the most active players in the country, so being able to just use my length was the biggest thing that they tried to tell me, that was the biggest thing to be honest.”

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“Need to play [Daimion] more; Need to play Oscar less.

With Oscar struggling, Daimion Collins came in and gave the Cats a spark off the bench for the second game in a row. The sophomore’s stat line — 3 points, 1 rebound, and 1 steal in 5 minutes — may not look like much, but he led the team in efficiency at +11. Collins’ free throws to push Kentucky’s lead from four to six with 0:51 left were huge, and a sign that his confidence is growing.

“He gained the weight back,” Calipari said of the 16 pounds Collins lost after his father passed away in November. “That was the one thing he had to do. And then the other thing is, he had to get back in that competitive spirit and he’s there.”

“Really good,” Jacob Toppin said of seeing Collins play well. “You guys know what he has been through. He has been through a lot, and he is always keeping a smile on his face, so that is big time for him. He is a good soul, and he comes into practice, works out, and he is putting in the work and when his time came, he shined. So, I am proud of him, and this team is proud of him.” 

Collins impressed Calipari so much that he may get some of Oscar’s minutes.

Need to play him more; need to play Oscar less. Oscar, I’ve got to chalk it up to he’s playing too many minutes. How do you not dunk? You know what I’m saying? The baskets, things I know he can do, so probably playing him a little bit. That means Daimion can play more.”

As for Oscar, Calipari’s not overly concerned.

“So, when I tell you that my job is to make sure he’s out there being fresh to do what he does, he’s like, whatever you say. When I said, ‘Take yourself out,’ know what he said to me? ‘I don’t know how to do that, Coach. You just take me out.’ That’s what he said to me.”

Photo by Dr. Michael Huang | Kentucky Sports Radio

Calipari on why Reeves only played 19 minutes

After burning up the nets with a season-high 27 points in Kentucky’s win at Ole Miss, Antonio Reeves only scored four points on 2-5 from the floor tonight. It’s his lowest-scoring output since the win over LSU back on Jan. 3. Reeves only played 19 minutes, also the fewest since the LSU game. He did not see the floor in the final nine minutes while Florida attempted a comeback. Afterward, Calipari said that Reeves’ performance on defense is what held him back tonight.

“It wasn’t Antonio’s day. It wasn’t because he got beat on five backdoors. It wasn’t offensively. I couldn’t keep him in because he kept getting beat on backdoors. But he made baskets when we needed them. When we were dying, he came up with stuff.”

Thankfully, CJ Fredrick finally broke out of his slump to help fill the void with 12 points. After going 5-26 from the outside in the last five games, Fredrick was 3-6 from three-point land tonight.

“I told CJ in the huddle, I said, shoot,” Calipari said. “If you are open, you let that ball go. This team has confidence in him. I’m going to tell you what else. The other teams, we know he went like 1-15 or whatever he did over a couple of games. The other teams still play him as a shooter because they know he can shoot.”

“I don’t know if there is a shooter who hasn’t gone through some struggles,” Fredrick said. “My job is to come in and shoot balls. You’re not going to make every shot, but I have to have the mindset of shooting the ball when I’m open. When you’re in a slump like that, [you have] to continue putting in the work, coming in early, getting shots up, and continuing to do what I do.”

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