Kentucky answers biggest defensive questions in double-digit win over Ole Miss

“We’ve got to get, let’s say 10 percent better defensively.” That was John Calipari’s ask ahead of Kentucky‘s matchup vs. Ole Miss amid the team’s three-game losing streak inside Rupp Arena. The Cats were scoring 89.3 points per game in that stretch, but giving up 95.3. A 10 percent improvement on that would put you at 85.8 points allowed — a tight window, but something the team ranked third nationally in scoring can work with. Shoot, we’d even take the 78.8 points they had been allowing on the year — No. 327 nationally — if the 90-point outings continued to pile up against SEC competition.

The Rebels are hardly an offensive powerhouse at No. 111 overall putting up 76.4 points per game, but that hasn’t meant much for the Wildcats this season. Even mediocre teams have made getting hot look easy against this group, inexplicably losing track meets with world-record times.

Then Kentucky went out and held Chris Beard’s group to 63 points — roughly 18 percent fewer than their season average, for those keeping track at home.

Ugonna Onyenso ties David Robinson’s block record

The 10 percent thing isn’t literal, obviously, but it’s part of the greater message with this group of just how close they are to being the team they’ve got the talent to be. Ole Miss shot just 37.5 percent from the field, 22.7 percent from three and 55.6 percent at the line. Some of it was luck with the Rebels missing open shots — free throws included — but it’s impossible to ignore the fight and aggression on that end and the way the Cats found ways to be disruptors, blocking 12 shots and forcing eight steals.

Ugonna Onyenso had 10 of those swats, tying the Rupp Arena record set by David Robinson back in 1987. That certainly helps.

“We had to change a little bit of what we were doing, how we were guarding people,” John Calipari said. “I keep saying we’ve got shot blockers. ‘Don’t give him a jumper, make them beat you on the bounce because we’ve got people back there. Ugonna (Onyenso) set a Rupp record, which is amazing. 10 blocks.”

“From my point of view, the combination of a high-turnover game and getting our shot blocked what seemed like a hundred times from where I was sitting (was the difference),” Beard added. “One player had a special game, just didn’t give us enough offensive possessions and we didn’t shoot it great tonight.”

Throwing the first punch

But Kentucky also set the tone with a full-court press, looking to muck things up by throwing the first punch rather than taking it. The Cats let some buckets slip through the cracks and it led to an early deficit, but after settling in, they managed to close out the half on a 25-6 run to take a 14-point lead going into the break.

“(And) pressure. We weren’t backing up. The start of games are bad for us because we’re back. We can’t be that way. My whole career, the first four or five minutes, we pressed — even if it was an ugly press. Not to press them, but to get my team playing with a motor.”

It was actually a suggestion from the players as a way to hold each other accountable defensively in an all-in effort to, again, improve 10 percent on that end of the floor. They worked on it in practice and threw it out there for the first time against the Rebels.

“We were trying to get into them a bit more than letting them come down the court and have 30 seconds to do whatever play they wanted. Wanted to pick up and make the game faster, play how we need to play. … We were aggressive, got into them more. We were the aggressors, that’s what we needed to do to affect them offensively. That was a big difference.”

A rotation is set

The energy was there and it compensated for some of the fundamental deficiencies. They weren’t perfect, but with the offensive firepower from top to bottom, they don’t have to be. Putting points on the board will always be this team’s bread and butter. They’ve just got to be able to string together a few stops when necessary — mission accomplished against Ole Miss, holding the Rebels to an abysmal .863 points per possession.

Kentucky played with fire and brought the physicality, but it goes deeper than that, too. We also saw the start of a shortened rotation with Tre Mitchell back in the lineup, a clear top-eight that stretched to nine with Aaron Bradshaw when the fifth-year senior hurt his shoulder four minutes into the second half. Reed Sheppard (32), Antonio Reeves (28), Onyenso (24), Justin Edwards (24), Mitchell (21), Adou Thiero (21), Rob Dillingham (20) and DJ Wagner (18) was the core group with Bradshaw playing spot minutes and Zvonimir Ivisic and Jordan Burks emergency reserves.

That’s the recipe for March and why Coach Cal feels this team is built for that moment. It doesn’t matter who plays offensively, points are going to be scored. That’s going to come up big in the NCAA Tournament.

“You can’t score 65, 63, 62. You can maybe in one game, but you’ll get beat (at some point),” he said. “You’ve got to be able to score points. We can do it. You’ve got to have a player that can go off in a game so you can advance. We have a couple of those.”

On the flip side? You can’t have guys out there getting bulldozed into the stanchion on every paint touch. Can’t get beat on 50-50 balls. The players on the floor have to bring it, not take it.

“The issue is will we be physical enough?” Calipari said. “The reason we were physical today: DJ is physical, Tre is physical, Ugonna is physical, Adou is physical. Now you’re playing (where) four of your top eight are physical players. They are going to bang. That was one of our issues.”

Taking care of business in a must-win game

Emphasis on eight. And to Bradshaw’s credit, he made the most of his limited time on the floor, racking up four points (2-2 FG), two rebounds and two blocks in 13 minutes. Want to prove you belong on the floor? Do that. Impact winning and play with toughness, bring something to the table the team is missing. It was a heck of a response by the 7-1 freshman.

It all led to a 22-spot jump in the KenPom defensive efficiency ratings from No. 126 to No. 104 overall — still bad, but better. 18 percent better, to be exact.

This was a must-win game for Kentucky coming off a three-game home skid, a chance to regain some momentum ahead of a string of three Quad 1 opponents in four games. Just had to have more points than the Rebels at the final buzzer, no matter how it looked. Not only did the Cats do that, they did it by facing their biggest flaws head-on and cruising to a double-digit victory thanks to defense.