Jaxson Robinson's breakthrough pushes Mark Pope to milestone 200th victory -- just as fate would have it for Kentucky in Starkville

It just felt like the streak was destined to end. Winning 18 straight regular season matchups against Mississippi State and 2008 marking the last home win for the Bulldogs in Starkville, Kentucky had to slip up at some point. Chris Jans has MSU rolling with an All-SEC talent in Josh Hubbard carrying the scoring load, the revenge factor on their side after Reed Sheppard broke their hearts in game-winning fashion a year ago. Their strengths as a team were the Wildcats’ weaknesses, physicality and toughness seen as alarming big-picture questions coming out of an ugly loss in Athens just a few days prior.

Fans had camped out since midnight, Humphrey Coliseum a sell-out. Undefeated at home and 4-0 against Quad 1 competition. If there was ever a time for that 17-year run to end, it was now.

And then Jaxson Robinson happened.

Jaxson Robinson finally breaks through

Hitting a recent rough patch with confidence waning, the fifth-year senior broke through for a high-major career-high 27 points on a blistering 9-12 shooting and 7-10 from three. It was the best all-around performance of his time at Kentucky, certainly, but I’d argue he’s never looked better in 112 games played in college. He was calm and self-assured, but above all else, he was passionate and emotional. The energy was tangible and grew with every flick of the wrist, zero doubt in his mind every shot was falling through the bottom of the net. There was a joy and love for the game we just hadn’t seen from Robinson since he transferred in from BYU. It was a season-altering performance, the stepping stone to individual stardom this team desperately needed from him. Right when doubt crept in we’d ever see that player as a Wildcat, he came through.

Just as Mark Pope promised he would, even at his lowest point. That’s what it’s all about.

“My goodness, it’s the best part of coaching, actually,” Pope told KSR. “When you see guys grow and do things that they didn’t know they could do in times when they didn’t know if they could do them — when you get to be a part of that, it’s really special.”

Ansley Almonor wins the game for Kentucky

Robinson was the story, but Ansley Almonor was the hero and deserves equal praise. Up 14 points with 15:16 to go, Mississippi State cut the lead to just two less than three minutes later. Momentum had flipped entirely, leading to the Bulldogs’ first lead since the 3:39 mark in the first half. 8:17 to go, the Wildcats felt dead in the water. Toast. Cooked. Streak over. Not that the two-point deficit was insurmountable, obviously, but the energy in the building reflected a crowd that would refuse to give back the lead, desperate to finally will their team to victory.

Insert Almonor, who checked in and immediately drilled back-to-back 3-pointers to flip the momentum back with Kentucky retaking a four-point lead, then another bomb from deep to go up seven shortly after. Like Robinson, it was his biggest stretch in blue and white, why you bring a guy like the 6-7 forward in from Fairleigh Dickinson as the second-to-last scholarship piece. He’s a plug-and-play shooting spark off the bench when adversity strikes.

The BYU transfer laid the foundation, then Almonor won the game — plus two big buckets from Robinson and Lamont Butler in the final minute and change to ice it.

“I’ve said this so many times: Ansley Almonor is a perfect fit for how we play, and he’s going to win us some games and I love when players make coaches look really smart because we’re not, but sometimes they make us look smart. Ansley did that,” Pope told KSR postgame.

Andrew Carr proves this team isn’t soft

Let’s not forget Almonor earned extended minutes (19) because Andrew Carr missed practice all week dealing with a tricky back injury that nearly forced him to miss the game. He went through shootaround and was officially listed as a game-time decision before making the call to give it a go after pregame warmups, the strength staff monitoring his pain and ready to pull the plug at a moment’s notice.

Instead, Carr toughed it out and gave 21 tough minutes, contributing 13 points — third on the team — on 5-8 shooting with six rebounds and an assist. He battled and gave it everything he had in spurts, setting the tone with a big three early and finishing some crucial and-ones throughout.

“That just shows we’re not a soft team,” Amari Williams told KSR. “The fact that he’s got back problems — which is serious — and he was still able to go out there and compete, get on the boards, block shots, play defense, it just shows what kind of character he is.”

“He’s a tough, tough kid, man,” Pope added. “He’s a warrior. He’s a really tough kid. He loves our team.”

Lamont Butler shuts down Josh Hubbard

10 points and eight assists with the dagger at the end of regulation is praiseworthy in its own right, but that doesn’t even factor in what he did on the other end of the floor. Tasked with taking on Hubbard, a candidate for First Team All-SEC and SEC Player of the Year honors, Butler limited the dynamic guard to 15 points on 5-16 shooting and 3-11 from three with two turnovers.

He helped put him in foul trouble, limited to just 12 second-half minutes sitting with four, then forced some tough misses in moments we saw Hubbard hit those same shots a year ago in this same matchup. Right when you thought he was gunning for the kill shot, Butler swooped in to make the sophomore standout just uncomfortable enough to come away empty-handed. Five second-half points on 2-6 shooting and 1-5 from three changed the game, and Kentucky’s starting point guard was a big reason for that.

Win No. 200 for Mark Pope

Maybe biggest of all, it got the SEC road monkey off the team’s back in Pope’s first year at UK, paving the way for his 200th career win. He humbly brushed it off as “like 100 down on the list” of why this performance means so much, but for his players, it was everything.

For how much he’s poured into them, through their own ups and downs, they wanted to return the favor with a career achievement not every coach gets to experience.

“200th win for Coach Pope, that was a huge celebration for the whole team,” Robinson told KSR. “We couldn’t be more proud and thankful for Coach Pope and all the work and hours he puts in. He’s the first one to the gym and last to leave every night. That’s huge, especially for me because I’ve been with him the last three years. Just to see how happy he was, just getting to spend that time with him and have that moment, that was really, really special for me.”

That one puts Kentucky at 4-0 on the year against top-12 competition in the NET — best in college basketball. Everyone involved earned that one, too. It was a performance we’ll all remember for a long, long time.