Lipscomb HC Lennie Acuff says Kentucky is best Power 4 offense he's seen in six years

Lipscomb head coach Lennie Acuff is no stranger when it comes to challenging his program against tougher competition. Since taking over as the Bisons’ head coach ahead of the 2019-20 season, the 59-year-old has faced the likes of Arkansas (three times), Florida State (twice), Michigan, Louisville, Notre Dame, Miami (FL), LSU, Cincinnati, and Auburn.

Granted, Lipscomb has only won two of those matchups, beating Louisville during Kenny Payne’s first of two disastrous seasons coaching the Cardinals and then besting Florida State last season by three points. For a mid-major school, 2-10 isn’t a terrible record against those kinds of high-major opponents, but the win-loss record is beside the point.

The point is that Acuff has coached Lipscomb against some very good teams over the last several seasons. But none of them were as efficient or as deadly as the Kentucky Wildcats, which beat his Bisons by 29 points on Tuesday night in Rupp Arena.

“I’m tremendously impressed. Tremendously, tremendously impressed,” Acuff said postgame about Kentucky head coach Mark Pope. “We play a lot of these games — unfortunately we play a lot of them. And we’ve done well in a lot of them. But that’s the best offensive Power 4 team we’ve played in my six years at Lipscomb.”

Kentucky didn’t deliver what Pope would consider a great offensive performance either. The Wildcats only assisted on 10 of its 34 made baskets. But it didn’t ultimately matter. Kentucky poured in 97 points while making 12 three-pointers and 55 percent of its overall shots. Four Wildcats finished in double-digits with just eight total turnovers on the night as a team.

“If (Jaxson) Robinson, (Lamont) Butler, and (Koby) Brea play like that,” Acuff continued. “They’re gonna be a tough, tough out.”

Those three were especially hot against Lipscomb. Robinson led all scorers with 20 points, a much-needed bounce-back performance from his one-point showing against Duke last week. Butler, who started the season 1-6 from deep, made all three of his outside attempts and finished with a season-high 16 points. Brea also went 3-3 from long range, none of his looks even touching the rim on its way through the net.

“Boy oh boy. You make one mistake or one half-second late, it’s three (points),” Acuff added.

But it wasn’t just the offense that impressed Acuff. He said that Kentucky’s defense was much better than he expected. Lipscomb needed 67 shots to reach only 68 points, making just five of its 29 total three-point attempts. Jacob Ognacevic, one of the Bisons’ preseason All-ASUN members, was held to just eight points on 3-9 shooting through the first 20 minutes. Lipscomb didn’t even make a three until there was 4:52 left in the first half.

Through the first four games, the Wildcats have yet to see an opponent shoot better than 40 percent from the field. And there is still so much more room for improvement for both ends for Kentucky…