Jacob Toppin dug himself out of rock bottom ahead of breakthrough vs. Louisville

Jacob Toppin‘s struggles throughout the season have been well-documented — perhaps too much so.

Over the summer, the 6-foot-9 senior was lauded as a future NBA Draft pick. With Keion Brooks Jr. off to Washington, Toppin was no longer in a situation where he’d have to share the minutes at power forward. He has the basketball pedigree with brother Obi playing for the New York Knicks along with the body to make it in the pros.

Toppin sure did look the part of a potential star during Kentucky’s Big Blue Bahamas Tour, averaging 16.8 points and 5.5 rebounds per game across four outings while shooting 56.5 percent from the floor. More impressively, he connected on 8-15 shots from beyond the arc. It was quickly coming together.

By all accounts, Toppin’s breakout season was looming, and many expected him to take a leap in production once regular season play began. But his consistency never carried over. Outside of a four-game stretch from Nov. 20 to Dec. 4, Toppin looked like a complete shell of what the Big Blue Nation saw just a few months ago. It got so bad over the last several weeks that John Calipari had no choice but to pull Toppin from his starting role.

In his last four games prior to Saturday, Toppin scored just 13 combined points in 21.8 minutes per contest. In Kentucky’s loss to Missouri on Wednesday, he went scoreless in 13 minutes played — easily his most disappointing game in a Wildcat uniform.

“Honestly, I probably reached rock bottom,” Toppin said after Kentucky beat Louisville about his mental state prior to playing the Cardinals. “There was no bottom before this game.”

But something clicked between that game in Columbia and what happened on Saturday afternoon against the program’s most-hated rival. Toppin was the clear-cut star against Louisville, earning the game’s MVP honor in an 86-63 blowout victory for UK. He went from playing his worst game as a ‘Cat to his best in under a week. Toppin posted a season-high 24 points on 10-15 shooting, including a 4-6 mark from the free-throw line. He tacked on seven rebounds and a pair of assists in 35 minutes of action as he was reinserted into the starting lineup.

Toppin’s success wasn’t a result of anything he did during practice or in the gym, though. He broke out largely because he was able to free his mind for the first time all season.

“At Missouri, I had him in my room, and I hugged him and I said, ‘Do you know how much I love you and how much I want you to do well? But I can’t do this for you, and you’ve got to get in a different frame of mind.’ And we talked about it,” Calipari said after Saturday’s win. “But he went into that game (against Missouri), and what’s the word above awful? Then it became, all right, where do we go with this and how do we do this?

“He did some things. He talked to some people. I watched him practice and I loved what I saw. I called him in, I said, ‘I’m going to start you tomorrow, what do you think?’ He said, ‘Okay.’ I said, ‘No. No. Yes, I want to you start me, Coach. Please! Thank you!‘ I said, ‘Come back and see me.’ So before practice he came in, ‘I really want to start.’ Great, then you’ll start.”

Suddenly, the same Jacob Toppin who was sulking and sending side-eyed daggers to his head coach just a few days ago was a boundless ball of energy. He was attacking the rim with meaning, throwing himself after rebounds, powering home putback dunks, and celebrating with his teammates and the jacked-up Rupp Arena crowd.

He felt like himself again.

“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,” Toppin said on Saturday. “I had a good talk with Coach Cal the other day, I had a good talk with my teammates, and then I called a few other people just to try and get back right mentally and it helped a lot.”

Toppin couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment he felt like he’d hit “rock bottom”, but from an outsider’s perspective, it’s not tough to guess how it came about. No one else on the Kentucky roster came into this season with more to prove than Toppin. A breakout season would catapult him into the first-round pick conversation. Anything less would have him on the outside looking in.

“We’ve done a lot of work, and it’s not been on the court,” Calipari added. “You had guys feeling the weight of the world.”

Couple that with the fact that Kentucky has noticeably struggled already this season, and it’s easy to see why someone like Toppin — who has so much weight on his shoulders and plenty to lose — could succumb to the pressure. The impact of social media certainly doesn’t help, either, and his teammates have stressed that he avoid it entirely.

“Jacob, I just remotivated him. I said you are better than what you’re doing,” Oscar Tshiebwe, who finished with 24 points and 14 rebounds against UL, said postgame. “Don’t let that noise affect your mindset. Get off social media, don’t pay any attention to it. Social media is just something — I don’t know, it’s not a good time for social media. Take it off of your phone like I already did. Keep your mind locked in and you’re gonna get there. That’s the Jacob everybody knows.

“I told him we got a couple of months to stay off (social media). Take off your social media on your phone. I told him be like me, start reading a Bible.”

Sometimes, it’s not about how much work you put in the gym. Everyone knows Toppin has unique talents. Sometimes, it’s more about playing loose and not having to look over your shoulder every other possession. Calipari is partly to blame for that, but even he’s beginning to acknowledge that yelling and screaming isn’t always the answer.

“You want to be so hard on them, sometimes you really mess up their minds. You are making it worse,” Tshiebwe said candidly about Calipari after the win over Louisville. “And Coach, he came out, now he started motivating them boys. ‘Nah man you’re good man! Come and see me! Do this, do this!’ And kids now are stepping up because they hear more positive stuff.“