Kentucky went nuclear on offense in romp over Tennessee

Getting buckets is the name of the game. At Rupp Arena, Kentucky showed Tennessee how basketball is supposed to be played.

In the 107-79 win over No. 22 Tennessee, the Wildcats lit the nets of Rupp Arena on fire in the border battle. Somewhere, Joe B. Hall was watching with a smile on his face as Kentucky pounded his former nemesis.

KSR is here to break down the key numbers that stood out from the 14th win of the season.

Absurd shooting game

Tennessee entered Saturday’s contest with one of college basketball’s top defenses. The Vols trailed only LSU in defensive efficiency at KenPom and were fresh off a win where South Carolina scored less than 50 points.

Kentucky got that in a half.

The Wildcats dropped a fiftyburger before halftime and reached triple-digits for the second time this season. Four players reached double-digits, and the offense was extremely efficient in multiple areas.

The Wildcats were 27 of 38 (71.1%) from two-point range, 11 of 18 (61.1%) from three-point range, and 20 of 21 (95.2%) at the charity stripe. Kentucky finished with 1.55 points per trip in 69 possessions. That’s as good as you’re going to get in college basketball.

TyTy Washington led the way with a career-high 28 points on 13 field goal attempts with five assists in 36 minutes. Sahvir Wheeler chipped in 21 points on 10 field goal attempts with eight assists in 28 minutes as the junior point guard returned from injury.

Elsewhere, Kellan Grady poured in 16 points with four makes from three-point land, and Kentucky got 10 points from Davion Mintz off the bench needing just five field goal attempts.

The Wildcats were locked in from the jump and cooked one of the better units in college basketball.

Oscar Tshiebwe rebounds when rebounds are not available

With the perimeter players providing much of the scoring punch against Tennessee, junior big man Oscar Tshiebwe got to be a complementary player against the Big Orange.

The West Virginia transfer attempted just eight field goals in 30 minutes, but the five-man still found a way to have a huge impact on the game with his work on the glass.

Tshiebwe finished the game with 12 rebounds with three coming on the offensive end. The Wildcats grabbed just 23 non-team rebounds for the game and Tshiebwe gobbled up over half of them.

The Player of the Year candidate has a huge impact on winning with stuff done on the floor outside of scoring. The big man remains Kentucky’s secret sauce for the 2022 season.

Stats that stood out

• After getting nothing from the bench in Tuesday’s win over Vanderbilt, the Wildcats got things ramped up against Tennessee. Kentucky produced 24 bench points as Sahvir Wheeler returned to the lineup. Getting the lead guard back on the floor made a big difference as the depth showed up in the blowout win.
• Tennessee recorded a big recruiting win when point guard Kennedy Chandler committed to the Volunteers. The top-15 recruit has major game. That showed up as the freshman scored 17 points on 11 field goal attempts. The rookie flashed deep range to go along with a strong mid-range package. Chandler looked like a five-star in the big matchup against TyTy Washington.
• Over his last four games, Davion Mintz has found the sweet spot. The super senior is 13 of 23 (56.5%) from three. After a slow start, Mintz is now shooting 38.3 percent from deep from the season and gives the Wildcats some major scoring punch off of the bench.
• John Fulkerson got quite the treatment from the Rupp Arena crowd. The super senior big is not a crowd favorite in the Bluegrass State, and a couple of flops seemed to create a pair of fouls on Oscar Tshiebwe in the first half. After that, there was not much else from the veteran. Fulkerson scored zero points in 20 minutes and finished a game-low minus-26 in plus/minus.
• Per ESPN’s Jared Berson, Kentucky is just the second team to shoot 65-plus percent from the floor and 60 percent from three-point range against a Division I opponent this season. The Wildcats did it against a top-five defense. That was an absurd performance.