Kentucky makes the Yum! Center its home in rivalry blowout over Louisville
It was easy to make fun of Louisville for pumping crowd noise into practice ahead of Kentucky‘s trip to the Yum! Center, but it makes sense. The Cardinals haven’t experienced a real crowd this season amid historically low attendance numbers, fans looking to make a statement for a second consecutive year of historically poor on-court results. You were more likely to see a dismissed player in the stands than the 22K-seat venue reaching half-capacity up to this point.
How would players respond to that other half-plus being filled from top to bottom with members of Big Blue Nation? That was the worry and unfortunate reality, certainly as a new round of retail tickets went live to the general public the morning of the game. Ready or not, they were coming.
You could see it outside the arena in the hours leading up to tip-off, the strong majority wearing some variation of blue and white. The same can be said of the scene inside. And then when the Cats took the floor for pregame warmups, an overwhelming roar compared to the lukewarm excitement coming from Card fans sprinkled throughout the crowd. The difference was tangible.
Kentucky wears home whites for a reason
You typically wear white uniforms at home, solids on the road. Thursday was no exception for the Cats. It may not have been Rupp Arena, but it sure felt close, Big Blue Nation making its presence felt from start to finish. Louisville fans did their best to rally the Cardinals early — it was still a one-score game with ten minutes to go — before Kentucky fans simply took over the place.
When reality set in that the game was toast, the home crowd simply sat back and listened to ear-piercing chant after ear-piercing chant. The Yum! Center was booming.
Then came the home fans parting the blue sea up and out of the exits.
“It was definitely a first for me,” Tre Mitchell said after the win.
It was the most surreal road atmosphere I’ve ever seen, fan or media. It paved the path for a statement rivalry win — the 13th for John Calipari out of 16 tries at Kentucky.
Antonio Reeves carries the scoring load
Reeves hadn’t hit the 20-point mark since Kentucky’s 118-82 win over Marshall on Black Friday after opening the season with four such games in his first six outings.
Then the first half came against the Cards.
He started with 22 points on 9-10 shooting and 4-4 from three — nuclear at all three levels, including the corner dagger to put the Cats up 20 before half. He’d close with a team-high 30 on a 10-16 clip — his first 30-burger of the season and the second of his Kentucky career. Reeves also becomes just the fourth Cat to ever go for 30 against the Cards, joining Kenny Walker, Derrick Miller and Tony Delk.
“It was starting to get a little cold — he was just flurrying,” Tre Mitchell said. “He wasn’t missing. He works harder than anybody I know.”
In a series of legendary individual efforts, Reeves joins the list.
Oh, and he has a fancy belt to prove it as the Bluegrass Sports Commission MVP award winner.
Justin Edwards is slowly breaking through
Out of all of Kentucky’s blue-chip freshmen, it’s taken the longest for the 6-7 wing to get going. He hasn’t been bad, putting up double figures in six of ten games, but he just hasn’t produced the way some hoped and maybe expected. For every one good thing he’d do, he’d follow it with two or three bad. The missed shots, offensive fouls, turnovers and the ball inexplicably slipping out of his hands on finishes around the rim have crushed his confidence to bust through that self-inflicted glass ceiling.
And then he had his breakthrough — against Louisville, no less.
Edwards went for 13 points on 6-10 shooting and 1-3 from three while tying his season-high in rebounds with seven and adding two steals and an assist in 24 minutes. It was the performance Coach Cal had been waiting for, one he’s capable of putting together every night.
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“I was just so happy for him because he needed to break through,” Calipari said. “You just think about him blocking shots, rebounding, open-court scoring. He should be a better defender — should be our best defender, but he’s never been asked to do that before. This is all new to him. … Today was a breakthrough for him and I was happy for him. He’s a terrific player.”
Reed Sheppard makes history
Laurel County’s finest knows what this rivalry means and the history behind it. So he decided to go on and make a little bit of it himself.
Sheppard finished with 11 points on 3-6 shooting and 2-3 from three while going 3-4 at the line — one of five Wildcats to finish in double figures. His greatest impact, though, came as a facilitator, going for a career-high 11 assists — the most ever recorded in a matchup between Kentucky and Louisville. The freshman guard finished with a team-high +27 in the plus-minus, doing so in 27 minutes of game action. He also turned the ball over just two times while adding four rebounds and two steals.
“Reed, just, whatever you ask him to do. He just plays basketball,” Calipari said of Sheppard. “Doesn’t care who scores or what it is, ‘If I have to get a basket, I will.'”
He took the fifth-most shots and made the biggest all-around impact on the team. That’s just what he does.
Skyy Clark, Brandon Huntley-Hatfield take this one personally
Once upon a time, both players were expected to be Wildcats, potentially on this team. Clark was committed and signed, projected to be Kentucky’s point guard of the future, while Huntley-Hatfield was seen as a lock — he’s Alex Poythress’ cousin — before John Calipari cut ties late in the recruiting process. They went their separate ways, the former to Illinois and the latter to Tennessee before joining forces at Louisville.
Huntley-Hatfield was a man on a mission on every touch — that ball was going up one way or another. And to his credit, the former five-star played well, going for 14 points on 7-7 shooting with seven rebounds. As for Clark, he had some early jitters going 2-7 at the line in the first half, but settled in for 13 points of his own on 5-8 shooting.
In a different universe, those two could’ve found themselves in Lexington.
Instead, they’re foes — and on the losing end of yet another Kentucky vs. Louisville rivalry battle.
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