Transcript
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Matt Jones (1:14)
Business on a very happy night for yours truly. The Cats get a big win at home. Much needed. 92 to 68 over Mississippi State to get off the losing ways and get a victory there first in SEC play. You can give us a shout here in just a minute. I you're going to have to excuse me because what Billy, two minutes, three minutes ago my football team won their first well, they've won a playoff game, but it's been a while. But beat the packers in an amazing comeback. I could do the postgame show on that but I know that's not what everybody why everybody tuned in, but we were down 21 to 3 and came back. All of my teams, the Cats, the Bears and the Canes all win in the same evening and Kentucky gets a commitment football that we'll talk about in just a minute, but I will refocus into basketball. Bear down Cats. After a bad start, a really bad start, down 12 early on, come back and actually absolutely blow out Mississippi state winning by 24. It was kind of a shocking comeback in some ways. Not only did they start poorly, Jalen Lowe went out quickly in the game with the shoulder injury that I worry might mean the end of his season and Kentucky initially when he went out, fell apart. They were not able to not only score, they couldn't stop Mississippi State, Mississippi State scored 28 points in the first seven and a half minutes of the game. But then after giving up 28 points in seven and a half minutes in the other 32 and a half minutes they only gave up 34 points as Kentucky's defense clamped up and most importantly they began sharing the ball. 21 assist and I would say by far the best passing game that they've had all year. Made some shots. Big game by Ortega away his third straight game with 20 points. Malachi Moreno was great. We saw aggressive Cam Williams, Colin Chandler made some shots. Denzel Aberdeen after three airballs in the first 10 minutes plays I thought pretty well after that and then other guys came in and gave you good minutes. Jasper Johnson, I thought Brandon Garrison had some good minutes. Overall Kentucky played excellent over the next 30 and gets a 24 point win on a night that Rupp's runs have the 60th anniversary of their of their run to the championship game. My take on it is this. With the rest of the season and we are now officially over halfway, I'm going to assume we don't have Jalen Lowe. I would think now after being injured and after re aggravating it twice, it would seem likely to me he doesn't play again. If you saw him on the bench he didn't even have his arm through the sleeve of his shirt and and Mark Pope said was asked about it in the post game and he said all options are on the table including not coming back. I mean I again no knowledge. Maybe he does but we've now seen him get it hurt at the start of games twice. I think it probably is best for him with no medical knowledge to to not play. So that means you have a team where you're basically not going to have a traditional point guard guard. You're either going to have to play Aberdeen or Chandler at point guard or you're going to have to play basically move Jasper Johnson from having games where he didn't play to being a primary point guard. And I actually think that's going to be the best option long term but the only way you're going to succeed in that scenario because the one thing Jalen Lowe could always do for you is create offense. The only way you're going to be able to create offense is by sharing the ball. You don't have anybody on the team that can consistently beat guys off the dribble and you don't necessarily have any individual huge scoring talent. So you're going to have to share the ball. You're going to have to play like a team and you're going to have to make outside shots and they did all of that in the last 30 minutes. I think it's very important to look at who was in the lineup because I think they're going to have to do something that probably was not what they thought when they built this team. I think when they built this team, they thought Jalen Lowe, Otega O Way, Denzel, Aberdeen, Mohamed Diabate and then either Malachi Garrison, Quaintance, etc. I don't think that's going to be how they're going to be able to play. The team was better with Diabate on the bench. He only played 13 minutes. I think part of it is he's not really played well in SEC play and there have been other issues we've talked about. He's kind of been bickering, etc. But I don't think that was the issue tonight. I think Mark Pope's offense requires a four man who can shoot, period. End of story. When they try to play the two bigs of traditional, which I've never liked, it worked a little bit against St. John's but that's because they can't shoot either. I don't think he can play unless he has a four that can shoot. When Andrew Carr was playing last year, Kentucky played pretty good. In some of the games where he was out, you may remember, we really struggled. I just don't think they can play with a Diabate and two guys clogging up the paint. Kentucky's got to spread out. They've got to be able to make back cuts and they got to have a guy like Cam Williams who can hit that corner three. And I don't know what that means for Diabate. I don't know if it means he plays 12 minutes a night like he did tonight. But this team I think will be better since they don't have low. I think they're going to be better with Cam at the four and either Garrison or Moreno at the five. Maybe with Yellow Vic playing some four because he can shoot as well. I think that's what you got to do and I that's. You will have spent a lot of money on Diabate. He is. In some ways he's a tough player. But tonight I watched other guys play better and I think that's the way this team's gonna have to play. And if they play like that, I still don't know what their ceiling is. Without low, I don't know how good they can be but if they're going to win, they're going to have to win like they did tonight. Hustling, hitting the glass. I thought they rebounded really well. Sharing the ball. That's the secret to their success. And Rupp was a factor tonight, I think. Mississippi State down the stretch. I don't say they quit, but they were demoralized. And the crowd was a big part of that. You know, Kentucky was losing. They show Will Stein. There was booing. They show Will Stein. He starts. He starts, like, getting the crowd going. And next thing you know, the crowd was great. This was a great Rupp arena crowd. I was there for some of the game, and I loved the atmosphere. It was bad when it was booing. I actually went. I'd gone outside at that, and when I came back in, so I kind of missed the booing. You know, I was pretty. I'm not a booer. I don't. I don't like the booing, especially for whatever reason. It bothers me more at Rupp than when it happened in Nashville. But you know what? They turned it around, and you got to see the best of the crowd at the end of the first half and in the second half. So he's now one and two in conference. Man, if they could have beaten Missouri, they'd actually be sitting in a pretty good spot. But they're not. They go to LSU on Wednesday. LSU is the only team in the conference without a win. You got to win that game, and then if you win that game and you're two and two, you know, you're kind of back on level. Alabama lost at home tonight to Texas, a Texas team that had not won a conference game yet. Arkansas lost by 25. Tennessee lost. So, I mean, there's still time to turn this around and do some good stuff. This was a must win. They got it. I think they've got another not a must win, pretty close to must win on Wednesday. And then we'll see if this team that will be without Jalen Lowe probably for the rest of the year. In my opinion, that's just a guess. I think Quaintance will come back, but you might have him in and out. The rest of this team's got to play like they did tonight, and if they do, maybe they can make some noise. Now, also, what happened at the game. Kentucky got a major, major football commitment. If you remember. If you've been listening to my show, I've been talking about how they wanted to, you know, they mentioned feed the studs. Well, the idea was have six to eight players that you think are big time studs and then build your team around it. Well, they got two today. One of them happened before the game. Offensive lineman who originally played for Tennessee and before that lsu. He commits to Kentucky. Lance Heard, he's third team all SEC left tackle last year. That was a big get. But the bigger get at the game to Will Stein in front of the student section. Billy, think about that.