Three Takeaways from Kentucky's 86-63 Victory Over Louisville
Kentucky entered Saturday afternoon in dire need of positivity.
Following the 89-75 defeat to the Missouri Tigers in Columbia to open SEC play, the Wildcats appeared to be in bad shape. With four losses through the first two months of the season and no marquee win to speak of, UK was still searching for something to brag about.
Enter a rival opponent who's seemingly incapable of playing a complete two halves of basketball. The Louisville Cardinals presented a turnaround opportunity for the Cats, even if wasn't one that was going to be eye-popping on an NCAA Tournament résumé.
Taking on the Cards inside Rupp Arena was just what the doctor ordered, as the prescription read a season-high field goal percentage (60), a career-high scoring night for Jacob Toppin (24) and a reason for Kentucky to believe in itself moving into 2023.
Here are three takeaways from the 86-63 win:
Trimming the rotation is crucial to success
Though the season is two months old, Calipari is still speaking about tinkering with the lineup, figuring out where certain players fit and who the final five on the court will be during crunch time. That in-turn means that the Wildcats are behind schedule.
Shooting guard CJ Fredrick suffered a finger dislocation, meaning the player rotation will be shrunk by one for what's expected to be at least until the middle part of January. While 10 players still saw the floor for UK on Saturday, it was clear for the fist time this season that one group of five players were able to see a huge chunk of the minutes.
Sahvir Wheeler and Cason Wallace manned the backcourt, while Chris Livingston and Toppin started alongside each other with Oscar Tshiebwe for the first time this season. All but Livingston would see 30 or more minutes in the win over the Cards. Shooting guard Antonio Reeves saw a downtick in playing time, but served as a sixth man of sorts with 16 minutes of his own.
With or without Fredrick in the picture moving forward, this is clearly the way to go for Kentucky. The time for tinkering is up, as SEC play has begun. While some players maybe haven't gotten a fair shake in terms of opportunity, that cannot be something that Calipari worries about moving forward. The Alabama's and Tennessee's of the world will feast if there's an endless rotation of forwards checking in and out because not one of them can find a groove.
Take away the unique 2014-15 platoon team, and most of the success that has come at UK under Calipari has been with a smaller rotation of players. The sheer NBA talent may not be there on this group of Cats, but the recipe for wins clearly does not involve four or five players ranging from 5-10 minutes off of the bench.
Building blocks for Jacob Toppin
Say what you will about the caliber of opponent that the Cardinals are (i'll get to that next). What Toppin was able to do on the floor on Saturday has the potential to open up that massive world of potential that surrounded him during the beginning of the season.
Talks of what pick he was going to be in the NBA draft suddenly turned into talks of whether or not to bring him off the bench for the Wildcats. As you can imagine, that was weighing rather heavy on the senior:
"Honestly, I probably reached rock bottom," he told reporters.
Toppin has always had a smile on his face when speaking about having the opportunity to play Louisville. He clearly understands what the rivalry means. The light finally appeared for the Brooklyn native when he saw red and black enter Rupp Arena. He took advantage of getting back in the starting lineup in a big way, scoring 24 points on 10-15 shooting while adding seven rebounds and two assists.
“I’ve been in a rough patch that I needed to get out. I’ve had a lot of support from my teammates and my coaching staff, and it just feels good to be back to my old self. I feel good mentally and physically,”
Seeing the ball go in the basket can do wonders for a basketball player's confidence. Toppin hadn't been seeing that very much, as he scored a combined 13 points in the previous four games, including a goose egg in the loss to Mizzou.
Whether it comes against the 1996 Chicago Bulls, Louisville or Tates Creek High School (shoutout to the Commodores), points are points, and points help your team win. Kentucky needs Toppin to perform in order to win games on a regular basis.
Everyone will see how his progression continues across SEC play, but 10 buckets in a rivalry game is one heck of a way to start building some confidence back up.
Now about Louisville...
Take the result with a jumbo grain of salt
The 2-12 Louisville Cardinals are a bad basketball team. Big Blue Nation witnessed that first hand. Coach Kenny Payne is trying to tug the effort and ability out of his players, but the way that the roster has been built is detrimental to its success. Take away El Ellis, and i'm not quite sure where the scoring would come from on even a semi-regular basis.
Aside from personal and mental victories like Toppin's, nobody should feel like major questions were answered in a sufficient way based off what happened over the weekend. While it's a drubbing of a rival, it doesn't build a résumé and provides nothing of major substance in the grand scheme of things.
Kentucky is very much still a team that is in need of consistent energy and toughness, especially if it wants to not get stomped in the SEC. Outdoing Louisville is not something to hang your hat on and won't do any good when March rolls around.
The real response needs to come on Tuesday, Jan. 3, when LSU rolls into Lexington fresh off a 60-57 win over then-No. 9 Arkansas. The Tigers won't be contending for an SEC title this season, but will play the role of gatekeeper for UK this week.
If the Cats are serious about turning a page and hitting their stride, then a convincing-enough win over LSU must be in the cards.
Game notes from the win over Louisville can be found here.
Everything Calipari said after the game can be found here.
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