4-Point Play: Nothing beats a win over Louisville

Sure, this rivalry doesn’t pack the same punch it has in the past. The series is lopsided and the Louisville basketball program is drowning. Kentucky, on the other hand, has emerged as a legitimate contender this season — firmly in the top 10 and rising with three teams ranked ahead of the Cats losing in recent days.

How did we get to this point? Let’s talk about it today in KSR’s 4-Point Play.

“We come to your town and beat your team.”

But did you know John Calipari was actually talking about Big Blue Nation when he said it? I’ll be honest, I’ve just never seen anything like the scene inside and outside the KFC Yum! Center. Opposing fans don’t do that, walk into a road venue and make it their home. The streets were lined with blue in the hours leading up to tip-off, then that sea of blue poured into the arena and lined it from top to bottom.

Pictures don’t do it justice — well, maybe one does.

To the naked eye, it looked like a fairly even split between blue and red in the lower bowl. The uppers, though, were jam-packed with passionate road fans — a heavy majority. But even counting numbers aside, that’s not what it was about. It was the energy from the respective fanbases, tangible apathy from the home crowd and relentless support from the visitors. You could hear a pin drop when the Cardinals came out for pregame warmups, followed immediately by a roar for the Wildcats.

If you had closed your eyes, you would’ve thought the rivalry matchup was back in Lexington.

The most telling moment: Tre Mitchell gets a steal, pushes it ahead to Reed Sheppard, who then lobs it to Antonio Reeves for the and-one alley-oop finish to put Kentucky up 71-49 with ten minutes to go in the game. The game is out of reach and reality has hit the Cardinals like a sack of bricks.

And then this happens.

Speechless. pic.twitter.com/kgeDv1a71G

— Jack Pilgrim (@JackPilgrimKSR) December 22, 2023

Magical would be the best way to describe it.

Cats own the city of Louisville

Fans turned the city blue, but it was the team taking care of business on the hardwood. Just as the football team did on the gridiron not even a full month ago, winning 38-31 inside Cardinal Stadium on Nov. 25. That was the fifth consecutive Governor’s Cup victory for the Wildcats, just as this was the fifth basketball win in six tries dating back to 2017.

Both of these victories within four weeks took place in enemy territory to complete the two-game road sweep for just the third time in the modern era. According to UK Athletics statistician Corey Price, Kentucky has won in Louisville in both football and men’s basketball in the same school year in 2010-11, 2018-19 and now 2023-24.

In the wise words of Bankroll Fresh, Kentucky walked into Louisville’s trap and took over Louisville’s trap not once, but twice in less than a month. Pretty embarrassing, if you ask me.

Kentucky moves up to No. 27 in the NET

On paper, the win isn’t a resume booster for the Cats in the eyes of the Selection Committee. Louisville entered the matchup ranked No. 267 in the NET — a Quad 4 true road game for Kentucky. Those losses tank you on Selection Sunday (even UNC Wilmington was a Quad 3 home loss). Just couldn’t afford to drop that game if this team has dreams of being a top seed in the NCAA Tournament — and it’s certainly got the look of one. Fortunately, the Cats took care of business and beat the Cards comfortably and we can now mostly look ahead to the SEC slate (sorry Illinois State).

With the win, Kentucky moves up to No. 27 in the NET, good for fifth in the SEC behind Tennessee (No. 7), Alabama (No. 9), Texas A&M (No. 16) and Auburn (No. 20). Analytics didn’t favor the Cats’ early body of work — certainly not following the UNCW loss — opening at No. 45 in college basketball’s primary sorting tool for seeding purposes. But to their credit, they’ve done nothing but chip away in the weeks since, knocking out back-to-back-to-back solid wins vs. Penn, North Carolina and Louisville.

The Cats will have their third Quad 1 test of the season at Florida on Jan. 6, followed by another Quad 1 at Texas A&M a week later on Jan. 13. Eye test season is mostly over at this point. The opportunities to build a real resume begin in conference play.

An embarrassment of riches

I want you to look at two groups of stats and think about what stands out in your mind, the similarities and differences. Can you guess which team is which?

The answer: Kentucky’s 2012 national championship top six and this current group — essentially six players averaging double figures each. The 2021-22 roster, which finished the year as a No. 2 seed, is the closest under John Calipari with five and two more with at least 6.0 PPG.

This team? Eight averaging at least 7.7 PPG, seven with at least 8.5 PPG. Even the top-heavy ’11-12 title group had just one guy hitting the 5.0 PPG mark beyond the top six in Kyle Wiltjer. They were wildly talented and balanced, but thin.

Going back through the Coach Cal era in Lexington, there were ten rosters with four double-figure scorers and two with three. Point being, no roster under the current administration has ever had this much top-end scoring and all-around depth. That’s how you average 90.6 PPG.

The ’16-17 group was the previous scoring leader under Calipari with 84.9 PPG. No one else cleared the 80-point barrier. This team is beating the record by 5.7 and the next-highest by 11.1 (79.5, ’15-16).

That’s why this group is so scary. Who do you guard? Fortunately for us, that’s for other teams to figure out.