Some next-day thoughts on yet another Kentucky win over Louisville

I’ll be honest, I couldn’t sleep last night. I’m sure there were many of you in the same boat, reliving yet another masterpiece put together by the Kentucky Wildcats this season while staring up at the ceiling. Instead of counting sheep, we were counting Lamont Butler buckets to help us drift away before dreaming about more Lamont Butler buckets and the roar from Big Blue Nation that followed over and over again.

Hopefully you guys eventually got some rest following that magical day and woke up this morning ready to celebrate winning 17 of the last 22 matchups against Louisville — that growing stat never gets old. As we get our gears turning and the sleep shaken out of our eyes, how about some next-day thoughts on the rivalry win?

Lamont Butler wasn’t missing this game

Butler was a late scratch against Gonzaga while Colgate was what it was — no reason to risk further damage against the second-worst team on the entire schedule. Louisville felt like a solid target date with a full week of recovery, followed by another week before Ohio State, then ten days until Brown on New Year’s Eve if you really wanted to push the rest before SEC play. Mark Pope said he “just (didn’t) know if he’s going to be quite ready” on Thursday, but what’s interesting is Butler said Friday is actually when he knew he’d give it a go on Saturday.

“I knew probably yesterday when I did the full practice,” he said after the win. “My ankle felt good, so I said, ‘I’m ready to play for the game.'”

Associate coach Mark Fox doubled down on that confidence in his return while acknowledging no one quite knew a 33-point career day was coming.

“We knew Lamont was going to play, but I don’t think anyone could have anticipated how well he would play after being out for a couple games,” he said on 630 WLAP’s Sunday Morning Sports Talk. “He was amazing.”

Here is some backstory on Butler’s triumphant return: Call it gamesmanship, call it a miraculous late-week recovery, whatever, but the exact quote I got on his situation leading up to the game was, “You’d have to cut his leg off to keep him out of this one.” The staff was cautious following Kerr Kriisa’s foot injury, knowing they couldn’t afford any serious setbacks with the depth as thin as it is at point guard — Butler dealt with a lingering ankle issue last season at San Diego State, as well. That’s why he missed two straight. Whatever it took, though, PG1 was going to be out there for this one, understanding the magnitude of the rivalry and only getting one shot at it in his final season of eligibility. Then to take that opportunity and turn it into an all-time individual effort despite coming in banged up? Welcome to legendary status.

Pat Kelsey is the man for the job

It’s hard to admit this and I apologize in advance, but it’s abundantly clear that Louisville’s found its guy to lead the program. Fans are apathetic, I get it, but if there is one guy capable of pulling that base from its pit of misery, it’s Pat Kelsey. He’s 5-8 on a good day, but there is a ton of energy in those 68 inches, and he’s getting the most out of his group of misfit toys. They are a less-talented, worse-shooting version of Kentucky while dealing with serious depth issues and they still found a way to compete until the very end, refusing to die when the Cats were looking to run away with it.

The rivalry felt back on Saturday, you know? It was two teams exchanging blows from the opening tip to the final buzzer with only one survivor, that being the good guys in blue and white. There was fight (literally) and passion, something that’s been missing essentially since Rick Pitino left almost a decade ago. That’s what this series deserves and finally has with Pope leading Kentucky and Kelsey leading Louisville. It’ll be fun seeing both guys hit their stride on the recruiting trail and building rosters with development and continuity beyond one-year portal rentals.

Andrew Carr has been brilliant — but let it fly!

I’ll be honest, I was fairly disappointed in Carr’s performance at Clemson to open the month of December. For a guy who made a name for himself bullying ACC competition — specifically against the Tigers — I thought he came out passive and uncomfortable in that one, finishing with just five points on 1-7 shooting and 2-4 at the line with five rebounds, two assists, two blocks and two turnovers. In a game I expected him to step up, he kind of shied away from the moment.

From there, though, the Wake Forest transfer has followed it up with performances of 19 points, seven rebounds and three assists vs. Gonzaga, 11 points, 10 rebounds and three assists vs. Colgate and, most recently, 10 points, nine rebounds, four assists and two blocks vs. Louisville. In that span, he’s shooting an impressive 61.5 percent from the field while turning the ball over just once. He’s been terrific, especially in key moments — he saved the day against the Zags in Seattle.

One gripe, though: LET IT FLY! Carr has taken just one 3-pointer in three games, passing up shot after shot after shot despite earning clean looks. I’m not sure if it’s a confidence thing or the 6-11 forward obsessing over finding a better shot for his teammates or looking to reset in the post after finding his groove inside — maybe it’s all three? — but I want to see the big fella fire away when he’s got open shots. 1.3 attempts per game with a hit rate of 36 percent from deep just ain’t cutting it. Good shooters need to shoot!

Zero second-chance points allowed in the second half

A sneaky stat that made the difference for the Cats in this one? Despite giving up ten offensive rebounds, the Cards only came away with eight second-chance points overall with zero coming after intermission. That was a point of emphasis for the team after some early slip-ups.

“In the first half, we gave up four buckets there on the offensive glass for them and then we shut the water off in the second half,” Mark Fox said. “Even though we weren’t perfect with defensive rebounding, we didn’t give up any points when they got an offensive rebound. That certainly was key for us tonight.”

Kentucky won the overall rebounding battle 41-31 including a 34-21 edge on the defensive glass while matching second-chance points at eight apiece.

Some other weird numbers from the win

I was going to use this section to complain about free-throw shooting — because that does need to improve after going 18-28 (64.3 percent) against the Cards to drop the season conversion rate to 72.3 percent. That comes after marks of 61.5% vs. Colgate (BAD!), 83.3 percent vs. Gonzaga (GOOD!), 61.1 percent at Clemson (BAD!), 81.8 percent vs. Georgia State (GOOD!), 69.0 percent vs. Western Kentucky (BAD!) in the last six. It’s a roller coaster ride at the line.

Beyond the ten points left on the table you notice it was kind of a funky game all around. Louisville hit 14 3-pointers after coming in averaging a little over eight makes per contest while also winning the bench battle with 23 points compared to Kentucky’s 15 despite coming in at a serious depth disadvantage. On the flip side, the Cats absolutely cooked in transition, scoring 24 points compared to just four for the Cards — though we saw 11 turnovers for the blue and just seven for the red. And how about another big day for ball movement? 23 assists on 32 made baskets for UK compared to eight assists on 31 field goals for UofL.

Rivalry games get weird. This one was no different — and it feels just as good.