Kentucky Must Rebound Following Kansas Loss

The era of good feeling surrounding the Kentucky basketball program ended with a loss to Kansas Saturday night. While disappointed in their performance from the 77-68 defeat, the players know this is just a minor setback.

“It’s not the end of the world. We understand that. We’re still together,” Jacob Toppin said after the game.

“We’re good. Yeah, we took a tough loss, we made a few mistakes down the stretch that cost us the game, but we’re still together. We’re not going to separate now, we’ve been through worse, you guys know it. So, we’re just going to come back tomorrow, watch film on what we could get better at, and just get ready for our next game.”

Antonio Reeves wisely described the season as a marathon. One game will not erase the positive strides the Cats have made over the last two weeks.

“The morale is where it’s supposed to be,” said Oscar Tshiebwe. “Today was tough. I cannot say anything. I give credit to all my teammates. We fight, we just gotta get back again together and move on. We cannot get anything from this game, we lost, learn from it, watch the film and go on and beat whoever we play next.”

A road trip to Ole Miss is up next. Looking further down the line, Kentucky got another important taste of a big-game atmosphere. Last year the Wildcats did not pass those tests enough and it showed in the Big Dance. They have picked up one of those wins already this year. Despite coming up short against Kansas, the Wildcats received some much-needed experience with high stakes on the line that should pay dividends in the postseason.

“Kansas is a really good team. For us to come in and fight the way we fight tonight, it just gives me more confidence. Now we know we gotta fight, get better, get better and keep going,” said Tshiebwe.

“This can help us a lot. I know we’re really disappointed. I wish we could win but it taught us how it is out there. We just gotta learn from this, not let this happen and move on. It gives us more confidence for the NCAA Tournament. Now everyone can see that we gotta stay focused to keep on moving in the NCAA.”

"This is a marathon. We got games, and we just got to keep getting better."

🎙️ @UKCoachCalipari pic.twitter.com/1UL1SaehLU

— Kentucky Men’s Basketball (@KentuckyMBB) January 29, 2023

Surprising Rebounding Problems for Kentucky

Entering last night’s game, it seemed inconceivable that Kentucky could get out-rebounded, particularly by a smaller Kansas team. The Wildcats entered the game with an offensive rebounding percentage of 38.8. Against the Jayhawks it was 15.3, the fourth-lowest percentage in the Calipari era. They turned four offensive boards into zero second chance points. Even though Toppin scored 14 points, he shoulders the blame for UK’s shortcomings on the glass.

“I didn’t rebound the ball. I wasn’t fighting first half, second half I got I think four rebounds, but that wasn’t a fight. I’ve got to go for more rebounds,” said the UK forward.

“Honestly, they weren’t doing anything (special). I know I could’ve crashed more. There were times where I was just floating around the perimeter. I gotta be better at that because obviously when we were winning games, we were dominating the boards.”

Kentucky learned that dominating the glass is not a given, even with the college basketball’s best rebounder in the paint. Tshiebwe finished with nine boards, just the sixth time he failed to reach double-digit rebounds as a Wildcat. Kentucky must clean the glass to bounce back in a big way in SEC play.

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