After last week’s thrilling win over Duke, it’s finally time to watch Kentucky Basketball again. KSR’s new and improved LIVE BLOG will bring you all the sights and sounds from Rupp Arena as the Cats host the Lipscomb Bisons (7 p.m. ET, SEC Network+).
Kentucky is 3-0 and up to No. 9 in the AP Poll, No. 11 in the Coaches Poll after last week’s win over Duke. Lipscomb is 2-3 this season, with wins over Duquesne and Wofford and losses to Arkansas, Belmont, and Western Kentucky. The 66-61 loss to the Hilltoppers was the first game in the BBN Invitational, a multi-team event featuring Kentucky, Lipscomb, Western Kentucky, and Jackson State. The Bisons (yes, with an ‘s’) were picked to win the ASUN by both the coaches and the media. Senior forward Jacob Ognacevic leads them in scoring and rebounding with 20.6 points and 8.0 rebounds per game.
Tonight’s game streams exclusively on SEC Network+, so if you’re unable to watch, we’ve got you covered. Refresh the feed below for updates and our takes on the game, from both Rupp Arena and the couch. You can also join the conversation on the KSBoard Game Thread or by texting your observations to 859-587-3828 (standard messaging rates apply).
After scoring just one point against Duke, Jaxson Robinson bounced back in a great way to the tune of a game-high 20 points tonight. He talked about his performance afterward with the SEC Network+ crew. “The Duke win was great,” Robinson said. “I felt like for me personally, I let my team down with my body language last game, so I felt like tonight, I just wanted to make sure I was aggressive and a great teammate and let everything else take care of itself.”
I’ve been covering Kentucky men’s basketball games since the start of the 2022-23 season. I’ve missed only a handful of home games during that time. Not once have I seen a postgame radio crowd as large as the one tonight. And this is after a 29-point win over an ASUN team on a Tuesday night in November. The BBN has hope in Pope.
Kentucky advances to 4-0 with a 97-68 win over Lipscomb, the Cats’ first win in the BBN Invitational. The Cats shot 54.8% from the floor and made 12-25 threes (48%). The first half was a little sloppy, but hard to find much to complain about when Kentucky wins by 29. Jaxson Robinson led all scorers with 20 points, a nice bounce-back performance after his struggles vs. Duke.
With just over three minutes to go, Kentucky leads Lipscomb by 37, 92-55. The Cats are now 12-23 from three-point range (52.2%) and 33-59 from the field (55.9%). They also covered the team total of 90.5, for you gamblers.
Trent Noah and Travis Perry check in with 6:43 to go
11/19/2024 07:34:16 PM
If you heard a huge roar from the crowd, that’s because Travis Perry and Trent Noah just checked in. The student section has been waiting all week for this.
This Kentucky team is already making program history
11/19/2024 07:33:25 PM
Five straight points by Lamont Butler pushes Kentucky’s lead to 35, 83-48, at the under-eight timeout. He’s up to a season-high 16 points. Butler has three of Kentucky’s 11 threes so far. As Corey Price notes, the Cats have made at least 10 threes in each of their first four games, which is a school record. Not too shabby.
Former Wildcat great Jim Andrews, a two-time All-SEC selection and three-time SEC champion, was escorted to midcourt by Kentucky’s cheerleaders during a second-half timeout, welcoming him as the honorary “Y” in Kentucky tonight.
Andrews, a 6-11 center, scored 1,320 career points and grabbed 738 career rebounds in three seasons at Kentucky from 1970-73.
Buckets by Brandon Garrison and Otega Oweh push Kentucky’s lead to 63-38 with 12:52 remaining. Remember, this is the same Lipscomb team that hung with Arkansas until just around this mark of the second half of that game in Fayetteville. Just saying.
Robinson just hit his third three of the game to extend Kentucky’s lead to 25 and his total to 20, a season-high. An impressive bounce-back game for Robinson after going 0-4 from the field vs. Duke. He’s just eight off his career-high of 28.
A 6-0 run by Kentucky has pushed the Cats’ lead to 49-26, which prompted Lipscomb to call a timeout with 17:55 remaining. Amari Williams got the half off to a fun start with this slam:
Kentucky isn’t playing exceptionally well the way the score might indicate, but it’s certainly not a letdown effort after the emotional high that was Duke and the bright lights of the Champions Classic. You didn’t want to see that celebration linger too long and it’s clear the Cats are locked in, which is all you can ask for in a sleepy mid-week game against mid-major competition. It’s been a balanced effort, too, with no individual letdowns. If anything, the guys we hoped to see more from — looking at you, Jaxson Robinson — have been the early standouts.
Lipscomb is a good ASUN team who is well-coached and came in looking to give Kentucky its best shot, just as it did against Arkansas a few weeks back in what turned into a late scare for the Razorbacks. There is still time for this thing to go sideways, but it doesn’t appear that’ll be the case tonight inside Rupp Arena.
Also, can we talk about the crowd? I wasn’t sure what to expect coming in and Big Blue Nation has absolutely done its job in this one. It may not be a sell-out, but it’s pretty darn close and the energy is good. Good work, BBN.
No begging from our head coach or giving free tickets out at Planet Fitness tonight.
At halftime, Kentucky leads Lipscomb 43-26. The Cats are shooting 50% from the floor and 62% (8-13) from the three-point line. Lipscomb warmed up a little at the end of the half but is still only shooting 26.5% from the floor, 10.5% from three.
The Cats only had four assists on 14 made baskets, well below their average. They also turned it over six times. Not the cleanest half by any means but they’re still well in control of the game, leading by 17. The first half is just for collecting data, right?
Kentucky leads 36-19 with 3:37 to go. In Rupp Arena tonight: Ray Davis. Davis is in the midst of an excellent rookie season with the Buffalo Bills, who gave the Kansas City Chiefs their first loss on Sunday. Good to see Ray back in the Bluegrass. The Bills are off this weekend.
After missing their first 13 three-point attempts, Lipscomb finally gets one to fall. Charlie Williams’ trey found the net to make it 34-19 Kentucky with 4:29 to go until half.
Robinson was fouled on a three-point attempt and just sank all three free throws to make it Kentucky 32, Lipscomb 12 with 6:25 to go. Robinson now has 11 points.
Kentucky continues to cruise, shooting 64% from the floor. Jaxson Robinson hit another bucket and is up to five points, which matches Lamont Butler and Otega Oweh’s totals. Lipscomb is still struggling, now 2-14 from the floor, 0-9 from three-point range. Not helping their cause: blocks like this by Amari Williams.
A big three by Jaxson Robinson extends Kentucky’s lead to 13-4 at the first media timeout. Robinson missed his first two shots but got the third to fall. It’s Kentucky’s third three of the night. The Cats are 5-8 from the field.
Lipscomb, meanwhile, is ice cold, making just one of eight field-goal attempts so far (18%). The Bisons are 0-7 from three.
Otega Oweh is carrying over the momentum from a strong performance at Duke. He scored Kentucky’s first five points and blocked a Lipscomb three-point attempt. Lamont Butler hit a step-back three to make it 8-2 Kentucky with under 17 minutes to go.
15 minutes from tip-off here in Rupp Arena, and I’m having to listen to a loud roar of boos from the many Lipscomb students surrounding the press area in the upper level. Good for them for their excitement and making the trip from Nashville, but I am not interested in hearing such enthusiasm in my ear all night.
Beyond the Lipscomb students, it is a slow-arriving crowd, but Big Blue Nation is trickling in as we inch closer to the game.
Jacob Ognacevic leads Lipscomb in scoring and rebounding. When Tom Leach asked Pope how Kentucky plans to slow him down, Pope gave the Voice of the Wildcat kudos for correctly pronouncing his name, joking that he sticks to jersey numbers.
“He a three-level scorer. He shoots it really well. He’s really aggressive. He’s taking six threes a game. He’s really clever inside. He puts the ball down and gets to the rim. He’s gotten to the free-throw line twice as much as anybody else on this team. He’s the high-usage guy, and he’s really comfortable being a high-usage guy. So, he’s got a big body and uses it well. You don’t see a guy. He’s not a lightning-quick athlete, but his leverage is incredible.”
Mark Pope says Kentucky’s sole focus is getting better
11/19/2024 05:25:35 PM
In his pregame conversation with Tom Leach, Mark Pope said he’s not worried about a letdown because he and the team are only focused on growth, not ways in which they can revert.
“Right now, the only conversation we’re having as a team is we’ve got to get better. How can we get better, we’re hungry to get better, let’s be obsessed with getting better. That’s all we focus on.”
How specifically can they get better tonight? Pope said Lipscomb is similar to Bucknell in that they use a changing defense, which led to Kentucky turning the ball over more often than he’d like. He’d like to limit turnovers without playing it too safe.
“It slowed us down a little bit,” Pope said of Bucknell’s defense. “It was our highest turnover game. And so we’d like to show a little better in terms of being forceful and being decisive and kind of actually putting the pedal down more then we hopefully, we understand how we attack changing defenses a little bit better. So we’d like to be right there.”
Also, continue to work on rebounding, specifically on the offensive end.
“We’d like to continue our growth on the glass. It’s really important for us. We keep making strides there. And this team presents a terrific defensive challenge for everybody that plays against them. And so we like to be incredibly sound there.”
The road team fans/families have been seated next to the media this year. The Lipscomb crowd got in and arrived early. Will be interesting to see what the UK crowd is like tonight after a week off and a bad weather night in Lexington. I’m headed down to the arena floor to watch the ‘Cats warmup.
On the official UK pregame show, Cameron Mills shared a little of what he’s seen in practice over the past week. According to Mills, Mark Pope’s focus since the Duke game has been getting his guys to manage their “emotional buckets.” That means not getting too high after a win, like the huge one over Duke, or too low after a bad performance. I have a feeling we’ll hear about that after the game.
Good news and bad news. Let’s start with the bad. This game is on SEC Network+, meaning it will stream only through the ESPN app. You’ll be able to access it if you have the SEC Network through your cable provider. All you have to do is pull up the ESPN app on your phone, tablet, or TV via a streaming device and log in through your cable provider.
Good news: once you’re logged in, you’ll be able to see former Kentucky Basketball great Travis Ford call the game alongside Andrew Kappes. Also, it’s our second-to-last SEC Network+ game of the season. The final one is Friday vs. Jackson State. You can also just listen to Tom Leach and Goose Givens on the radio, keep up with the game via this here live blog, and/or join the conversation on KSBoard, where our game thread is rolling.
Streaming: SEC Network+/ESPN+ (Andrew Kappes, Travis Ford) Home Radio: UK Sports Network – 630 WLAP, iHeart Radio (Tom Leach, Goose Givens) Online Radio: iHeart Satellite Radio: Sirius 158 or 190 Live Stats: StatBroadcast
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