KSR's ten favorite things from Kentucky's win over Louisville
This could be ten things about Lamont Butler, ranking his ten best buckets in order or ten times he proved he was better than Chucky Hepburn or ten times he put the team on his back to lead Kentucky to the victory over Louisville. Instead, we’ll celebrate the win talking about all of the things we loved from the performance to move the Wildcats to 10-1 on the season — because there were plenty of them.
What were the best? KSR breaks them down from the rafters of Rupp Arena right next to the banners and retired jerseys wondering what Butler’s name will look like up here in a few years.
Lamont Butler is the new Cardinal Killer
Butler’s previous career-high at San Diego State was 23 points, never taking more than 15 shots in a game in four years and breaking the 20-point mark just twice. Then — despite missing a full week of practice and highly questionable entering the matchup — he became an all-time legend at the snap of a finger, finishing with a career-high 33 points on a perfect 10-10 shooting and 6-6 from three to go with six assists and three rebounds in 32 minutes. Playing on a broken wheel, he became just the second SEC player in the last 20 years to finish with 30-plus points on 100 percent shooting.
We’ve seen Tyler Ulis’ bloody eye. We’ve seen DeMarcus Cousins bounce his elbow off Jared Swopshire’s forehead. Hell, we’ve even seen Chinanu Onuaku hawk a loogie at Nate Sestina in a game at Freedom Hall. This is the best damn rivalry in the history of the sport and somehow Butler jumped atop the leaderboard of fan favorites overnight, scoring the second-most points behind only Derrick Miller’s 34-ball in 1988 and tying Jeff Brassow in 1990 for the most threes made in the rivalry with six.
“Lamont Butler just gave us one of the all-time performances in the history of this super special game,” Mark Pope said. “The numbers back it up.”
Otega Oweh closes it out with a bang
Oweh was already playing well for the Cats, starting with a welcome-to-the-rivalry poster on Noah Waterman within the first two minutes of the game.
Then he did his part to shut down any dream the Cards had for a late comeback, scoring nine of the team’s last 14 points to close out the win. The junior guard drilled a corner three to go up 10 with 1:10 to go, then following a three from Waterman, he responded with an and-one to push it back to 10 with 43 seconds to go — plus another free throw down the stretch for good measure.
He’d close with 17 points on 7-11 shooting to go with three assists, two steals and a rebound — plenty good for MVP honors had Butler not gone nuclear.
“One of the great things about O is he just stays in the moment,” Pope said. “He’s got a pretty great capacity of just being dialed into the moment and not spending a lot of time worried about the consequences of what might happen or what just did happen. He’s pretty good at being present.”
Shooting gets back on track
Sure, it helps when one of your players goes a perfect 6-6 from deep, but how about Kentucky getting past that 10-make barrier for a second consecutive game after a stretch of four falling short dating back to the Jackson State win on Nov. 22. The Cats went 10-31 against Colgate, leaving much to be desired in terms of efficiency, but at least getting back to the volume Pope was looking for. Then they followed it up with the efficiency the staff wanted, knocking down 11 threes on 21 attempts for a blistering hit rate of 52.4 percent.
The team passed up too many open shots with Koby Brea and Andrew Carr being the main culprits — let it fly, Cats! — but when they took ’em, they finally made ’em.
While we’re on the topic of putting the ball through the hoop, though, can we get those free-throw numbers up, please? 18-28 ain’t gonna cut it long-term — and it turned an 18-point butt-kicking into a nice and easy eight-point win.
Five players in double figures
We know about Butler and Oweh, but three other Wildcats finished in double figures, as well, giving Kentucky five on the day. Beyond the 50 combined points for the starting backcourt, we also got 12 points with eight rebounds for Jaxson Robinson, Andrew Carr with 10 points, nine rebounds, four assists and two blocks and Koby Brea with 10 points and a rebound.
Depth was the main storyline going into this one with Louisville severely shorthanded carrying a seven-man rotation, especially once Butler was able to go. Kentucky had eight players averaging at least 12.9 minutes per game active with the three freshmen on standby — Travis Perry ended up playing seven minutes in Kerr Kriisa’s absence. To the Cardinals’ credit, though, their core group of five players with 30-plus minutes apiece all scored in double figures with two going for 20-plus.
They fought given the circumstances, but it just wasn’t enough to overcome the Cats’ edge in talent and depth.
Louisville threw a bird at halftime
Did you happen to hear that chirping going into the halftime break? If you heard a bird, your ears were not lying to you. Maybe you saw one, too. I sure did — and it was thrown by Louisville forward Khani Rooths, who clearly didn’t like what one Kentucky fan had to say to him in the tunnel on his way to the locker room.
Quick acknowledgement and gesture, then bang, middle finger.
It was just like Rick Pitino on his way out of Rupp Arena in his last rivalry matchup as Louisville’s head coach back in 2015. Fast forward nine years and he’s a dear friend of the program again, back like he never left in 1997. Maybe we’ll see Rooths back in some capacity a decade from now to continue the trend.
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And we got a fight!
Clash Peters led the charge in Kentucky’s first fight of the season when the Cats took on Georgia State a couple of games back. Pope liked the way his team responded in that dust-up, saying, “When things got salty, our guys leaned into each other, they looked into each other, they were making eye contact with each other, they were talking to each other and backing each other up.”
The first-year coach jumped into that one to help separate players and calm things down. Then we had something similar unfold with Louisville in town, Pope running over to the opposing bench when Brandon Garrison got caught up in some chippiness, pulling him out of the pile to help let the dust settle a bit.
No punches thrown or techs handed out, just some good old-fashioned rivalry fun.
Pat Adams gets to go home upset
Coaches may change, but Pat Adams’ ability to stink up Kentucky basketball games will never die no matter who is leading the program. The man who cares more about his own image and embracing the spotlight that comes with being on the floor than officiating properly was back in prime form. There was one sequence where he got a call egregiously wrong on a tipped ball out of bounds, then when told by the baseline official with a better angle he missed it, he doubled down with a weird little possession dance to let the world know he wasn’t interested in outside opinions and was sticking with his call.
Then after a few more head-scratchers, Big Blue Nation showered him with a solid, “Ref, you suck!” chant to let him know how he was doing. Fitting and deserved.
Officiating didn’t impact the game at all and it certainly didn’t hurt Kentucky in a game it took 28 free throws compared to just 14 for Louisville, but any chance we get to highlight Adams’ obsession with making things about him, we’re going to take it.
Malachi Moreno throws L’s down
Talk about a guy embracing the rivalry, my goodness. Moreno is ready to suit up in blue and white now, looking to beat Louisville for the umpteenth time himself. Before the game started, the future Wildcat threw a big L’s down from his seat next to his mother.
Then he was introduced at midcourt and about broke his wrist throwing the L’s down while soaking in a roar from Big Blue Nation. It was beautiful, a look into the future as Moreno walks off the floor at the Yum! Center next year following another Kentucky win.
Welcome home, Antoine Walker!
Speaking of special guests enjoying the big win, how about Wildcat legend Antoine Walker joining the fun? The 1996 national champion and three-time NBA All-Star was the honorary ‘Y’ during the game, celebrating a career that saw him earn First Team All-SEC honors on that very floor.
He got to watch his former teammate pick up yet another signature win as head coach — with plenty more to come.
Mark Pope staying after to sign every single autograph
It was a big-time win with plenty of emotions, obviously, Pope coaching in his first Battle of the Bluegrass after playing in the rivalry three decades ago. After things died down and media obligations wrapped up, though, he didn’t bolt out of there to get the party started on a Saturday night with his friends and family.
Instead, he stuck around and signed autographs and took pictures with every single fan who wanted one inside Rupp Arena. Don’t believe me? I watched him do it and got the evidence as he went one by one, knocking out hundreds upon hundreds of signatures and snapping photos until there were none left.
The line dwindled down from hundreds to dozens to a handful, wrapping up with a security guard getting the last photo and Pope giving him a big hug before heading out.
A special way to end a special night inside Rupp Arena.
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