Why Kentucky's "Super Ugly" win over Texas A&M may be its most important yet

Kentucky has had higher-ranked wins. Kentucky has had more thrilling wins. Goodness knows Kentucky has had more aesthetically pleasing wins than last night’s rock fight with Texas A&M; however, the No. 8 Cats’ 81-69 victory over the No. 11 Aggies may go down as the most important of the season so far.

In the days leading up to the game, Buzz Williams admitted that he wasn’t sure if his team had an answer for Kentucky’s “pretty” offense; for at least a half, the Aggies did, using a combination of defenses to stymy the Cats. Kentucky shot just 10-29 (34.5%) from the field in the first half, 5-17 (29.4%) from the three-point line. Jaxson Robinson kept the Cats within striking distance with 15 first-half points against his former team, the only Kentucky player to hit more than one three-pointer before halftime.

“It gives you a sense of how potent we are offensively, you feel like it’s a night where you just can’t get a bucket and you put up 81, that’s pretty great,” Mark Pope said afterward. “It’s fun to have that team.”

Even though more of the Cats’ shots started falling in the second half, Texas A&M found ways to hang around, cutting Kentucky’s lead to six with seven minutes to go. Kentucky responded by going at the Aggies in the lane. The Cats didn’t attempt a three the rest of the game, scoring all of their points inside the three-point line or from the charity stripe. From a team that strives to shoot 30+ three-pointers a game, it was downright uncharacteristic.

“I love winning a game where we never felt great,” Pope said. “There was no three-minute run where we felt great, where we felt like we really got into a flow. For our guys to win that game is really important. I like the way we can win in different ways. I’m proud of our effort on the glass and on the defensive end.”

Kentucky outrebounded Texas A&M 40-30 and limited the Aggies — the No. 1 rebounding team in the country — to just 11 offensive boards, well below their season average of 17. After hitting seven three-pointers in the first half, two above their average per game in SEC play, Texas A&M went 0-12 from beyond the arc in the second half. The more Pope thought about the win, the more he was impressed by it.

“Huge credit to Texas A&M,” he told Tom Leach during his postgame radio show. “They kind of had us off balance the entire night with the press. We didn’t manage like we originally attended. So we kind of tried a couple of different change-ups, never got where we loved it. They were switching, kind of going between a switching man and a matchup zone. It kind of had us on our heels a little bit. We never got to a place where we were great.

“And I love the fact — I know it might not have been great for BBN to watch — but I love the fact that we can win a super ugly game against a top [15] team. Like, I love that we can do it. Our guys, they just kind of kept coming and coming till they found a little crease here, and a little crack there, and a little rhythm there, and just put enough of it together with their toughness to win.”

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Pope was especially pleased with how his team did against ball screens. As you know, the Cats have been abysmal against ball screens this season, most notably vs. Ohio State in the CBS Sports Classic. Last night showed they’ve taken a step forward.

“There was a game several weeks ago, right before Christmas, that would have come close to ruining my entire Christmas experience, because we could not guard a high ball screen,” Pope said. “And Texas A&M has become, especially with one of their best players [Wade Taylor IV] out right now, they’ve become really, really dependent on high ball screens and high ball screen slips and high ball screen appeals and all kinds of actions and our guys were unbelievable guarding tonight.”

Pope used one play by Jaxson Robinson as an example.

“Jaxson Robinson got a tough matchup at the top of the key. They’re kind of running a peel-ball screen, and Jax was brilliant. Jumped up, changed his feet, jumped up to stop, to reject it, caught it with his chest, and the play had to be rerouted. So that was our project two weeks ago. Our project this week has been the glass.”

After Kentucky’s loss to Georgia a week ago, many called his team “soft” and questioned whether or not they had what it takes to play in the SEC. A lot of that criticism seemed to be directed at Jaxson Robinson, who scored just five points on 1-5 shooting vs. the Bulldogs, and Amari Williams, whose rebounding has frustrated fans at times. Last night, the two combined for 20 rebounds, Williams pulling down 12 in just 23 minutes. Robinson finished with 22 points, becoming the first Kentucky player to score 20+ points in consecutive outings this season.

“We’ve been hearing the ‘soft’ word being thrown around with this Kentucky jersey and we take that personally,” Robinson said. “We don’t think people are saying that anymore with what we’ve shown in the last two games.”

And, in a very physical SEC, that may be the most significant development of the season.