KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — There have been better Kentucky teams under John Calipari, but there might never have been a more exhilarating one than this. Saturday was a perfect capper to the Wildcats’ fever dream of a regular season, the whole dizzying ride summarized in a single afternoon of breathtaking basketball.
Kentucky led fourth-ranked, SEC champion Tennessee by 11 points in the first half, 14 points in the second half, and still 11 points with 55 seconds to go in the game. Thompson-Boling Arena, filled to capacity and thunderous at times Saturday, heavily emptied at that seemingly hopeless moment. Then the Cats gave up a 3-pointer, turned it over, gave up a 3-point play, turned it over, committed a foul and turned it over again — all in 19 seconds.
And so, improbably, the Volunteers, led by All-American Dalton Knecht, who’d already torched Kentucky for 40 points by that point, got a shot in the air that would’ve tied the score with 11 seconds remaining. If Knecht had been the one to take it, we might be talking about an all-time collapse. Instead, it was an 85-81 victory for Calipari and company, arguably their best win of the season, despite being as unnecessarily tense as ever.
“Definitely stressful,” said senior Antonio Reeves, who was describing this particular day but might as well have been talking about the entire season. However, on the flip side: “We have a lot of confidence in these types of games. That’s what we need for these postseason tournaments.”
He’s not wrong. Calipari, even in the midst of a troublesome 6-6 stretch of this season, kept telling anyone who would listen, “We’re built for March.” Well, now it’s March and Kentucky (23-8) is an LSU putback at the buzzer away from having won eight straight games and an SEC championship. As it is, the Wildcats are 7-1 since Feb. 10, won at Auburn by 11, smashed Alabama by 22, hit a game winner at Mississippi State and shot the lights out in Knoxville on Saturday.
Big Blue Victory Highlights #GoBigBlue
Kentucky 85, Tennessee 81 🎥 pic.twitter.com/ehlOupgffi
— Kentucky Men’s Basketball (@KentuckyMBB) March 9, 2024
After watching Reeves and freshman Reed Sheppard score 27 points apiece and the Wildcats make 15 of 29 3s, Vols senior Josiah-Jordan James accurately assessed UK’s roster: “They got hoopers.”
“That’s the most explosive team in the country,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said.
Kentucky finished the regular season ranked No. 1 nationally in 3-point percentage, No. 5 in effective field goal percentage, No. 8 in offensive efficiency. Sheppard, perhaps the best pure shooter in college basketball, swished 7 of 10 3s on Saturday to all but end the race for national freshman of the year. After UT got within 3 points with 18 1/2 minutes to go, Sheppard stole the ball and pulled up for a 3 in transition — the first of six straight made 3s by him in the second half, most of them snuffing out any hint of a comeback.
“He came clutch,” Reeves said. “It’s really fun. We just feed off each other. That’s what it really comes down to: Other guys can make plays — I can make a play, he can make a play — and that’s why it’s so fun.”
But that’s not new. What’s scary for whoever draws the Cats in the NCAA Tournament is the late-season emergence of other pieces. Reeves, Sheppard and Rob Dillingham have been lethal all year, and now here comes fellow freshman Justin Edwards — a former top-five recruit who struggled for nearly the entire season. But now? He buried four 3s on Saturday and finished with 16 points, six boards and three assists against Tennessee, the school he nearly chose over UK.
Edwards has scored in double figures six times in the last 10 games, including his 28-point breakout against Alabama, and has made 14 of 21 3s in the last six games.
“Having as much confidence as I have now,” Edwards said, “it’s like we have another dude.”
Just what the Wildcats needed. Oh, and then there’s the emergence of 7-footer Ugonna Onyenso, who did not attempt a shot and did not score a point Saturday but had a massive impact on the game by providing something Kentucky lacked almost all year: rim protection. Onyenso had six boards, four blocks and a steal, but he altered (or altogether discouraged) several other shots. Tennessee missed 13 layups and dunks Saturday.
Defense, in fact, is the secret to Saturday’s game that’ll be overlooked given the final score, the ending flurry and the fact Knecht dropped a 40-piece on them. But the Cats, maligned for months over their porous defense, held UT’s top-20 offense to 38 percent shooting. Until the end, they took away everyone but Knecht. The other Vols combined to hit just 14 of 45 shots.
Over the last month, Kentucky’s defense ranks 55th nationally, per Bart Torvik, which is hardly elite but vastly improved and maybe just good enough to give the electric offense a chance. Overall, the Cats rank 10th at Torvik over the last eight games.
“I’ve got the youngest team in the country,” Calipari said, “that is coming together.”
Kentucky finished 13-5 in the SEC in a four-way tie with Auburn, Alabama and South Carolina for second place, and via head-to-head results against that group, it will be the No. 2 seed in the SEC tournament next week. With that comes the coveted double-bye, meaning the Wildcats are off until Friday and only need to win three games in as many days for a championship. Calipari said he didn’t discuss that with his team before Saturday’s game.
“You know the only tournament that matters to me,” he said.
Calipari might be right that Kentucky is built for that tournament. The Cats are certainly constructed for maximum entertainment — or stress, depending on perspective. They’re built to boom, but maybe also bust. Even if nobody knows for sure which, it’ll be impossible to look away.
(Photo: Randy Sartin / USA Today)
