Kentucky couldn't look ahead to Duke. Now it must move past it: "The next team can beat us."

Mark Pope challenged his team to stay in the moment during Kentucky‘s unique stretch going into the Bucknell matchup on November 9. The Wildcats had that one at home in a Saturday matinee as a big-time favorite, followed by a quick turnaround to Atlanta for the Champions Classic to take on Duke. It would’ve been easy to look past the Bison, sleepwalking through that one to get to the Blue Devils.

“We practice this on a daily basis, about, can we just be here right now?” Pope told KSR ahead of the Bucknell matchup. “And that’s going to also be a determining factor in how good we are as a team. Can we be present right now?”

Kentucky responded by defeating Bucknell 100-72 with the Wildcats shooting 48.1 percent from the field and 36.1 percent from three while assisting on 23 of 38 made baskets and pulling down 57 rebounds. They also held Bison star Noah Williamson to just seven points on 3-12 shooting after the Preseason All-Patriot League member went for 32 a few nights before. It wasn’t a perfect performance, but it was undoubtedly strong with no sign of overlooking the competition. They were present and focused, exactly what you hoped to see given the circumstances.

Then came Duke, Kentucky taking care of business there, as well. Overcoming early adversity, the Wildcats stormed back from being down as many as ten to earn the 77-72 win on the brightest stage imaginable — Pope’s first statement win as head coach.

Jumping into the top 10 with a perfect 3-0 start, there’s no doubt the energy in the Joe Craft Center has been sky-high in the days since.

“It’s always good vibes around the team, but I feel like it’s better vibes because we pulled out the win vs. Duke,” sophomore forward Brandon Garrison said Monday. “… It would give any team confidence, three games in beating a decent opponent like Duke. That helps our confidence for the rest of the season.”

“It felt great playing in a historic game like that, the Kentucky-Duke rivalry. It’s kind of just a dream come true,” fifth-year senior guard Lamont Butler added. “I’ve watched that game so many times, and to be on the winning side of that, it was a very fun game.”

That’s where things get tricky, though. As fun as that was and understanding the magnitude of a win like that — Kentucky hadn’t earned a victory in the Champions Classic since 2019, after all — it was just game three of 31. And game four takes place tonight inside Rupp Arena, conveniently against another group of Bison with the Lipscomb Bisons coming to town.

The Wildcats couldn’t look ahead, and now, they must not look behind.

“We gotta focus on the next game. That game was fun, but the next team can beat us,” Butler told KSR. “We have to go out there and play like this is the toughest matchup that we’ve ever played and the biggest game of our life. Go out there with that mentality and I think we can get it done, focus on that.”

“Don’t get too big-headed, coming in like we just won the national championship,” Garrison added. “We’ve got to take every game like it’s a big game, put that game past us. Now we’re looking at Lipscomb. That’s the next big game we’re focused on.”

Kentucky enters the matchup as a 21-point favorite with KenPom giving the Wildcats a 94 percent chance to pull off the win. It’s the start of a run of four games with that hit rate or higher — 99.5 percent vs. Jackson State, 94 percent vs. Western Kentucky and 98 percent vs. Georgia State — before things get interesting again at Clemson and Gonzaga to open the month of December.

Coasting through the tail end of November, though, is how you get carved up like a Thanksgiving turkey. (I had to throw in a holiday-themed metaphor there, sorry.)

That’s why the Duke celebration was short-lived and preparation began for Lipscomb not long after. Just like we’ll see with Jackson State, Western Kentucky, Georgia State and so on.

“Just taking it one game at a time. He gives us — I wouldn’t say a time limit, but it’s a couple of hours to enjoy it and then get ready for our next opponent,” Garrison said. “… He said he didn’t want us on social media too much, we might get big-headed because of all the love we got. We’ve got older dudes, so they were telling us to stay off our phones for a little bit and stick with our team.”

That’s not to minimize the Duke win and what it took to get to that point. It was a hard-fought victory months in the making, all of their hard work together proving to be worthwhile with millions of eyes watching their every move.

That felt good. Just like the others will feel good as they come moving forward.

“It definitely brought us together,” Butler said. “I mean, we’ve been going at it all summer and things like that. For us to be able to reap the benefits of being together and having the camaraderie that we had, it just grew that. It was a tough game, but adversity always brings people together. We were very happy we got it done.”

Expect more of the same tonight vs. Lipscomb.