KSR's ten favorite things about another top-10 win for Kentucky
Mark Pope has done something only Adolph Rupp has managed as head coach at the University of Kentucky, starting his career 3-0 against top-10 opponents. He did it against Duke, then Gonzaga, and now, at home against No. 6 Florida.
What were the top takeaways from the Wildcats’ SEC-opening win to move to 12-2 on the season? KSR’s got you covered from Rupp Arena.
Big Blue Nation doesn’t care about a morning tip
The conversation starts with the crowd and environment to begin conference play. It had that heavyweight battle feel in the hours leading up to tip-off — you had students showing up at 6:30 AM to get ready, for crying out loud — two of the league’s best throwing haymakers back and forth with only one able to come out on top.
BBN was a big reason why it was Kentucky standing overtop Florida at the final buzzer like Muhammad Ali vs. Sonny Liston. Through all of the game’s key moments, stretches and swings — even when the officiating crew needed a “refs you suck” chant or three — the fans helped push the Cats across the finish line to give Pope his first SEC win as head coach.
“There is just nowhere like it. BBN was ridiculous tonight,” he said. “I mean, how fun was it to be in that gym? It was pretty special.”
It was a big-game feel inside Rupp Arena, ESPN’s Dan Shulman — who has been calling games for three decades — going as far as to say it was a top-five atmosphere ever.
“I’ve been doing this 30 years. I can count on one hand where both the game and the environment were as good as they were today at Rupp for Kentucky-Florida,” he said. “College basketball at its best.”
Couldn’t agree more.
Koby Brea was so good people started handing him babies
What happens when you score a career-high 23 points on a career-high seven 3-pointers on just eight attempts? Fans start throwing babies at you, obviously.
It was that kind of day for the fifth-year sharpshooter, who finished 8-11 overall in 22 minutes. His makes were timely, too, part of 16-0 and 10-0 runs in the first half that turned an 11-point deficit into a five-point lead before ultimately going up 10 at the break. He had a team-high 14 points and four 3-pointers at halftime, then added another nine after intermission.
“He was magical tonight, wasn’t he?” Pope said. “I don’t know, you are hard-pressed to make a real cogent argument that he’s not the best shooter in the country, it’s just ridiculous.”
Otega Oweh helped flip the game in the first half
Brea was brilliant in his own right, but life can get pretty boring when you’re the best 3-point shooter in the world, right? Fewer attempts, more points per make — it’s like a cheat code if you can get really good at it. I’m surprised more people don’t try.
Kidding, obviously, but let’s not discount Otega Oweh’s impact in that first-half stretch that swung the game from Florida to Kentucky with the Gators never leading again.
It was his physicality and toughness, getting downhill and finishing through contact while throwing mean mugs and flexing. He scored 10 of Kentucky’s 16 points in that 16-0 stretch to flip the game, then finished with 16 points on 6-10 shooting overall with four rebounds and two steals in 28 minutes.
The hope is to get Oweh for a second season in Lexington, but my goodness, he hasn’t had a game in single figures. 10-plus every time he steps on the floor with eight of 15-plus and three with 21. He’s consistently excellent in blue and white and by far the most productive player on the team night in and night out. Don’t be surprised if he starts popping up on draft boards.
Lamont Butler outplays Walter Clayton Jr.
Yes, I know the numbers. 33 is greater than 19. Whatever. Lamont Butler outplayed Florida’s best player and a future First Team All-SEC member in Walter Clayton Jr.
The star Gator went for 33 points on 9-15 shooting and 6-12 from three — plus another nine makes on 13 attempts at the line thanks to the three blind mice in stripes — but turned the ball over five times. Meanwhile, Lamont Butler became the first Kentucky player to have at least 19 points, eight assists and three steals in a top-10 win, according to Corey Price, finishing 6-9 overall, 1-3 from deep and 6-7 at the line.
His biggest stretch? Scoring seven points in the final 1:35 of the first half while earning two steals and forcing three turnovers on Clayton going into the break. Count his assist on Jaxson Robinson’s made three with 2:15 to go and Butler was involved in all but one bucket that turned a tie game into a 10-point halftime lead. Then he went out and was even better in the second half.
“It’s no surprise, you know? He takes those matchups personally. Seeing how he reacts to it in the game, he had that man going through it, in my opinion,” Brea said of Butler. “I don’t think a lot of guards in this country have seen something like Lamont Butler. That’s something we’re blessed to see every day in practice and to be on this side with him instead of against him is tremendous. We know he’ll always take so much pressure off all of us. He’s a winner.”
Clayton is an unbelievable talent and deserves a world of credit, but there isn’t another point guard in college basketball I’d rather lead the Cats than Butler.
Jaxson Robinson got shots up after scoring 1K
Robinson has been trying to join the 1,000-point club for several games now and finally hit the mark, scoring 14 on 5-12 shooting and 2-6 from three while adding two assists, one rebound and one block in 30 minutes. He joins Brea and Kerr Kriisa as Wildcats to reach that mark this season while Ansley Almonor, Butler, Andrew Carr and Amari Williams hit it before arriving on campus.
The best part? He wasn’t done once the dust settled inside Rupp Arena, going back out to the floor with graduate assistant Austin Pope to get shots up while Mark Pope signed autographs and took pictures with fans.
Starting this job full-time in 2019 and attending just about every home game since as one of the last people out of the building — I’m actually alone inside Rupp writing this now — it’s the first time I’ve ever seen a Wildcat do it.
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Maybe it’s because of the 11 AM tip-off and he had a long Saturday ahead of him with nothing better to do. Maybe he just wanted to get some extra work in after struggling with efficiency a bit this season. Either way, it was pretty cool.
Six players in double figures, all scoring 14+
It wasn’t a dominant individual effort leading the way for the Cats to get to 106 points. No 54 from Jodie Meeks or 47 from Malik Monk. Instead, it was six different players hitting the double-figure mark with all six scoring at least 14 and no more than 23 — as balanced as you can get.
Brea led the way with 23, followed by Butler with 19, Oweh with 16, Amari Williams with 15 and Robinson and Andrew Carr with 14 apiece. As a team, Kentucky shot 57.8 percent from the field and 48.3 percent from deep while assisting on 25 of 37 made baskets.
It’s just the second time in school history the Wildcats have had at least six players score at least 14 points, the first coming in Kentucky’s battle vs. Notre Dame way back on Dec. 28, 1974.
Travis Perry hit another three!
Playing an extended role with Kerr Kriisa out, Travis Perry drilled his first 3-pointer since Thanksgiving in a blowout win vs. Brown, then followed it up by hitting another in his first run in the SEC against a top-10 opponent.
Playing seven minutes, the Eddyville native earned a catch-and-shoot look from the top of the key and nailed it, pushing Kentucky’s lead to eight right when Florida was flirting with some momentum.
He closed with those three points on 1-2 shooting while adding an assist and zero turnovers as a plus-eight in his time on the floor. Taking over backup point guard duties for the time being, Perry played his best game as a Wildcat just one game after doing the same against Brown. Baby steps, but he’s building momentum.
A win despite losing the rebounding battle
Kentucky got smacked in the mouth early on the glass, watching Florida pull down 13 rebounds in the first seven minutes en route to 14 points in the paint compared to just four and eight in those respective categories for the Cats. Five of those boards were offensive for the Gators before finishing with 15 total, leading to 31 second-chance points. They would win the overall rebounding battle 38-30.
It’s another disappointing effort on the glass after UK combined for just 55 in its matchups vs. Ohio State and Brown — but it was a learning experience.
“We learned that we’ve got to get a lot more physical,” Pope said. “We learned that it’s going to be like a life or death fight on the boards every single night.”
You’d rather work through a glaring flaw in victory than loss — especially with Florida entering the matchup as one of the best rebounding teams in college basketball. Kentucky was forced to win the game in other ways and did.
Anthony Epps returned to his Old Kentucky Home
One of the all-time fan-favorites made his return to Rupp Arena as Anthony Epps, a 1996 national champion and 1997 All-SEC member, was introduced as the honorary ‘Y’ in the high-profile matchup.
Epps racked up 881 points, 544 assists, 329 rebounds and 184 steals in four years for the Cats, playing in 32 or more games the entirety of his career with 2,807 total minutes played.
A top-15 recruit got to see it all in person
Anthony Thompson was in Lexington for Big Blue Madness back in October, then made his return to begin the SEC schedule. The top-15 recruit was in attendance for Kentucky’s top-10 win over Florida, sitting courtside for the matchup as a VIP guest.
Ranked No. 15 overall and No. 5 at his position, the soon-to-be five-star small forward is considered one of the program’s top targets in 2026.
Quite the matchup to take in.
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