Arkansas Razorbacks at Kentucky Wildcats: Postmortem Of A Dominant Win

Yesterday, the Kentucky Wildcats sent a message, not just to the SEC (which got that message long ago) but to all of college basketball by soundly defeating the Arkansas Razorbacks in Rupp Arena 84-67 in a game that wasn’t nearly that close. Despite the undeservedly poor reputation of the SEC (which John Calipari has been doing his level best to ridicule), everyone who watches college basketball knows that Arkansas is a very good team. Kentucky’s rude handling of the Razorbacks did nothing to to change that fact.

The Razorbacks really had it tough yesterday. They played hard, but the threes weren’t falling for them, and their calling card — that nasty press they use — simply wasn’t working against the taller Kentucky back court, who could see over the traps. The size of Kentucky was also a problem for their smaller guards, as was Kentucky’s excellent transition defense, where Arkansas gets so many of their points. Good effort by the Razorbacks, but Kentucky was at their best yesterday on their home court. Not much they could do if everything didn’t go perfectly; and it did not.

Kentucky box

Courtesy of Kenpom.com

Arkansas box

Courtesy of Kenpom.com

Four Factors

Team observations

• Kentucky really attacked Arkansas yesterday, especially when they pressed. The Wildcats did a good job of handling the press in general, and when the opportunity presented itself, they took advantage.

• Kentucky did a spectacular job of ballhandling in this game, and denied the Razorbacks a critical part of their offense — turnovers. 12.9% turnovers is one of the best ballhandling performances of the year for Kentucky.

• 3-point shooting wasn’t great, but Kentucky had so much success inside the arc, it didn’t matter at all. To their great credit, the Wildcats refused to go on a 3-point shooting binge and attacked the rim relentlessly.

• Arkansas could not handle Kentucky’s size, it was a huge problem for them all game long.

• Offensive rebounding wasn’t that great. Despite Arkansas’ reputation as the worst defensive rebounding team in the SEC, the Wildcats only managed 37% OR’s.

• Kentucky’s defensive rebounding was not that impressive, either. 71% is just okay.

• The ‘Cats made 75% from the line, and even though that’s pretty good, I still lament it a little. The reason is that Kentucky’s best free throw shooters missed 4 of the 7 total misses.

• 6 blocks? Pretty good. A little low, but pretty good.

• 8 steals (11.4%) is excellent. Steals have been down a little over the last few games, and it’s good to see them rebounding.

• Kentucky’s guards did a great job of attacking the paint and using their size, or their quickness.

• Kentucky has become a tremendous transition defensive team. I remember not that long ago when they were anything but.

Individual observations

• I was all in for Andrew Harrison until I looked at the stats. Trey Lyles definitely deserves the game ball, and he gets it. He was outstanding all day, and not just shooting the ball. He defended, rebounded, and blocked shots as well. Great game by the young freshman.

• Andrew Harrison gets an honorable mention. His shooting was so-so (he missed a couple of dead-bang layups), and he had a couple of turnovers and not as many assists as I thought. Still, he was arguably the most valuable player because of how he relentlessly attacked the Razorbacks; it was glorious to watch. Andrew can be even better than this, and he was darn good yesterday. He drew a ton of fouls and made it really frustrating for the Razorback defenders.

• Tyler Ulis also gets an honorable mention. The diminutive freshman point shot the ball well, made great decisions and didn’t turn the ball over once.

• Willie Cauley-Stein played great. He got 7 points, blocked 4 shots and got 9 rebounds. Many games, this would’ve been good enough for the game ball, but he had a lot of quality competition today. Willie is a special player, and does so many things that don’t show up in the stats.

• Aaron Harrison struggled shooting the ball, but he did some other good things like rebound and defend. He had 7 big rebounds and an amazing 5 steals.

• Karl-Anthony Towns was limited by fouls, but he played 18 good minutes and shot the ball great. He didn’t rebound all that well, but again, limited minutes. He did get a block and an assist, but this was a game when Kentucky really liked having a more mobile lineup out there with Lyles and WCS, plus three guards.

• Dakari Johnson continues his sophomore slump. He’s having trouble making layups, but he didn’t rebound too badly considering the limited minutes.

• Devin Booker didn’t shoot it well from three, but he found ways to score and I thought he defended very well. His length bothered the Hog backcourt players.

• Marcus Lee, Dominique Hawkins and Derek Willis all played but had very little impact on the game. I thought Lee struggled a bit this game, and made a bad turnover early.

Tying it all up

Obviously, this was a big win for the Wildcats, one that proves that the SEC schedule is not as weak as many supposed, and that despite not playing the strongest conference competition, they are quite ready for any nationally-ranked opponent, and then some. Kentucky was clearly motivated very highly in this one, and when the Wildcats bring their A-game, it usually means the opponent goes home with an ugly loss. That was very much the case yesterday.

It’s clear to me, if maybe not to others, that this Kentucky basketball team now feels the pressure of history. They understand what is at stake with every game, and they are starting to focus in on what it would mean to go undefeated — first in the regular season, and then after … well, we’ll see about after when it gets here.

In my opinion, when fully focused and engaged, this Kentucky basketball team is untouchable — not merely unbeatable, but completely immune to challenge by this season’s college basketball teams. The Wildcats are big, fast, and can shoot the ball, but more importantly, they are able to deny teams whatever it is that they do well. If teams are good shooters, Kentucky makes it impossible. If they are a rebounding team, Kentucky stops them. It doesn’t matter what you try to do; the Wildcats look for your heart, then rip it out and show it to you.

That’s what happened yesterday, and it was a message to college basketball: beware the advent of March; the Wildcats are hitting their stride.