'We Could Exploit That': Vanderbilt called its shot and bullied Kentucky

Remember when Nate Oats said Alabama knew they could exploit Kentucky’s bad ball movement after the Crimson Tide’s 15-point win over the Cats in Tuscaloosa? We got another version of that last night from Vanderbilt after the 25-point loss in Nashville, the ‘Dores biggest win over the Cats since 2008.

Forward Devin McGlockton told reporters after the game that a main focus of Vanderbilt’s game plan was physicality, which Mark Byington’s staff considered one of Kentucky’s weaknesses.

“We thought we’d just be physical with them. That was our main goal, was on the rebounding on the ball. So yeah, Coach just told us that that was one of their weaknesses, and we could exploit that, and that’s what we did.”

I detect no lies. Vanderbilt — one of the worst rebounding teams in the SEC — outrebounded Kentucky 43-37, 27-16 in the first half. McGlockton led the way with a game-high 12 boards to go along with 11 points. His double-double became official with over 10 minutes left in the game.

The Dores, who only have one player on the roster over 6’7″, also outscored the Cats, who played three, 28-24 in the paint. What should have been one of Kentucky’s keys to the game — beating Vandy inside — became its Achilles’ Heel. The Cats were just 4-13 on layups and turned the ball over 15 times.

“It probably was key number one in the game,” Byington said of physicality. “And we wanted to do better with the rebounding, and without Duke Miles, we started a bigger lineup. AK Okereke was kind of our shooting guard. And we’re going to lose some things, but we hopefully gain some things there. And that was really key number one, whether it’s going to be screening physically, rebounding physically, and then challenging stuff around the rim. That was a major key.”

“Well, it was a massive weakness for us tonight, for sure,” Pope said when asked about McGlockton’s comments. “And it’s, you know, some of it just comes with mentality and commitment, and that’s an area where we’ve struggled a little bit and where we have to continue to develop better answers.”

In what has become a pattern, Kentucky started the game ice cold, missing 17 of its first 20 shots. The Cats’ first field goal, a Denzel Aberdeen dunk, didn’t come until over four and a half minutes into the game.

“That’s something that we’re working on,” Pope said of Kentucky’s slow starts. “It’s obviously an area of concern for us. You know, we have to make some progress in the way we do things in practice, the way we do things in game prep. You know, I felt like our guys had good juice. We just didn’t have the intensity to hit first. We got punched in the mouth pretty good, and we just didn’t respond at all in this game.”

Otega Oweh tried to pull Kentucky back in the game, scoring 14 of his 20 points in the second half, six in the first 2:15. When Tom Leach asked Pope if the rest of the team needs to match Oweh’s intensity, Pope said that’s been a season-long struggle.

“It’s important, but we just need to do that to actually engage our team in the game. And so that’s been a space where we’ve been fighting a difficult battle all year long, to get our guys to kind of embrace this idea of being incredibly physical and forceful to earn possessions for teammates. And we didn’t do that at all tonight. Their switching hurt us. Their physicality hurt us. Their heavy bottoms hurt us. Their volume at the rim hurt us. And we just failed to make the plays that you need to make in that situation to actually combat that.”

With only ten regular-season games left, time is running out. Next up: John Calipari’s No. 15 Arkansas Razorbacks on Saturday in Fayetteville.

Kentucky vs. Vanderbilt Postgame Press Conferences

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