KSR's top takeaways from Kentucky's 77-70 win over Vanderbilt

Kentucky continued its winning ways at Rupp Arena, taking down the Vanderbilt Commodores by a final score of 77-70 in Lexington.

The Wildcats finished the game shooting 46.2 percent overall and 43.8 percent from three while recording eight fewer turnovers and leading 33 minutes out of 40. It was a win that pushed Kentucky’s record to 18-4 on the year and 7-2 in conference play.

How did it all come together? And what does it mean for the Wildcats as they look ahead to their matchup at Alabama on Saturday?

Davion Mintz goes for a career-high 21 points

The sixth-year senior entered tonight’s matchup scoring just nine total points in three games, including a zero-point performance in Kentucky’s blowout road win at Kansas.

How does Mintz respond? By tying his career-high in scoring just one game later, of course. The 6-foot-3 guard finished with 21 points on 6-11 shooting, 4-7 from three and 5-5 from the line, his first 20-point performance of the season. He also added three rebounds, two assists and two steals to go with zero turnovers in 34 minutes.

“Davion played unbelievable today,” John Calipari said after the win. “Really, really good.”

Mintz’s 21-point performance marked the sixth player to score 20 points or more this season, joining Sahvir Wheeler, TyTy Washington, Kellan Grady, Keion Brooks Jr. and Oscar Tshiebwe.

“There are so many guys on this team capable of getting 20,” Mintz said. “This team is very talented.”

Keion Brooks Jr. with back-to-back 20-point games

After scoring 20-plus points just twice in his entire career at Kentucky, Keion Brooks Jr. has now managed to hit that mark in back-to-back games. He scored a career-high 27 points at Kansas, and tonight, the junior forward added 20 points on 7-15 shooting and 6-8 from the line to go with four rebounds, two assists and one block in 33 minutes.

He got off to a slow start, hitting just two of seven attempts in the first half. After the break, though, Brooks found his groove from the mid-range and around the basket, knocking down five of eight attempts for 13 points to push his total up to 20.

“Wow. And they were all big, too,” Calipari said. “Three jumpers that were huge. … He has been so much better.”

Oscar Tshiebwe with a ho-hum double-double

On paper, Tshiebwe had one of his worst offensive performances of the season, tied for the second-lowest shot total of the season with five attempts, making just two. He turned the ball over four times and had four fouls.

Yet the junior center still finished with 11 points, 17 rebounds, four steals, two assists and one block in 35 minutes.

Tshiebwe struggled to find easy scoring opportunities down low, but still managed to knock down seven of 13 attempts from the line while absolutely dominating on the glass. Vanderbilt somehow managed to outrebound Kentucky on the night (37-30), but Tshiebwe certainly wasn’t to blame.

The standout center has now racked up 16 total double-doubles on the year out of 22 played games:

• 17 points and 20 rebounds vs. Duke
• 14 points and 20 rebounds vs. Robert Morris
• 24 points and 16 rebounds vs. Mount St. Mary’s
• 0 points and 10 rebounds vs. Ohio
• 12 points and 14 rebounds vs. Albany
• 12 points and 16 rebounds vs. North Florida
• 20 points and 16 rebounds vs. Central Michigan
• 23 points and 11 rebounds vs. Southern U
• 25 points and 7 rebounds at Notre Dame
• 16 points and 12 rebounds vs. North Carolina
• 14 points and 28 rebounds vs. Western Kentucky
• 13 points and 20 rebounds vs. Missouri
• 15 points and 8 rebounds
• 8 points and 13 rebounds at LSU
• 29 points and 17 rebounds vs. Georgia
• 30 points and 13 rebounds at Vanderbilt
• 9 points and 12 rebounds vs. Tennessee
• 8 points and 14 rebounds at Texas A&M
• 16 points and 14 rebounds at Auburn
• 21 points and 22 rebounds vs. Mississippi State
• 17 points and 14 rebounds at Kansas
• 11 points and 17 rebounds vs. Vanderbilt

Tshiebwe’s worst is better than the rest of college basketball’s best. That, my friends, is why the 6-foot-9 center deserves to win National Player of the Year.

TyTy Washington comes up limping again

Just one game after the standout freshman returned to the lineup, TyTy Washington dealt with another health issue in Kentucky’s win vs. Vanderbilt. Playing just 19 total minutes, John Calipari confirmed that Washington fought through some pain to close out the game.

“TyTy [Washington] kind of coming up limping early in the game,” Calipari said. “Like, you’ve got to be kidding me. He came back and played. I’ve got to check on that. I’ve not seen him to ask him that.”

Washington suffered a left ankle injury in UK’s loss at Auburn and missed the team’s matchup vs. Mississippi State last week. He returned against Kansas and appeared to be back to 100 percent to open tonight’s game.

Washington finished with seven points on 3-7 shooting to go with one steal and four fouls in 19 minutes, including just seven minutes in the second half.

Scotty Pippen Jr. goes off again

Vanderbilt’s leading scorer is now the SEC’s leading scorer — again. Entering the day as the conference’s second-leading scorer at 18.6 points per contest, Scotty Pippen Jr. dropped 33 points to retake the lead over Arkansas’ JD Notae (18.8 PPG). He’s now averaging 19.3 points per contest.

In the teams’ first head-to-head matchup, Pippen finished with a game-high 32 points on 11-18 shooting and 6-11 from three to go with four assists, three steals and three turnovers in 32 minutes. This time around, he put up 33 points on 11-23 shooting and 9-12 from the line to go with six rebounds, five assists and six turnovers.

Pippen has now scored at least 20 points on ten different occasions, including three 30-point outings.

Kentucky defended well elsewhere — only one other Commodore finished in double figures (Jordan Wright, 14 points) — but Pippen was still able to get his.

Whistles, whistles and more whistles

Did *whistle* you *whistle* enjoy *whistle* the *whistle* officiating? The *whistle* referees *whistle* sure *whistle* did.

44 fouls in total with a combined 58 free throws between the two teams. Just to add to the fun, there were also two technicals and four total video reviews. The calls were nonsensical on both ends of the floor, but more than anything, the constant stoppage of play killed the momentum of the game and unnecessarily dragged things out.

The best officiating crews are the ones you don’t even realize they’re out on the floor. Tonight’s crew, however, made it clear they wanted to be noticed.

*whistle*