Five things you need to know from Kentucky’s 69-53 win over Vanderbilt

Five things you need to know from Kentucky’s 69-53 win over Vanderbilt in SEC men’s college basketball at Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville:

1. Toppin’s road reversal. Going into the Vanderbilt game, Jacob Toppin had averaged 2.7 points, six rebounds and two assists while making 11.4 percent of his shots (2 of 17) in UK’s first three SEC road contests.

That was in stark contract to Toppin’s four most recent games in Rupp Arena. In those contests, the senior forward has averaged 18.3 points, 6.3 rebounds and 3 assists while making 58 percent of his shots (29 of 50) and 50 percent of his three-pointers (2 of 4).

Has a good player ever had such a pronounced schism in his home and road splits?

On a night with much good news for Kentucky, the best may have been that Toppin treated Vanderbilt’s Memorial Gym like Rupp Arena South.

The 6-foot-9, 205-pound product of Brooklyn, N.Y., turned in an impeccable performance in Music City. Toppin actually beat Oscar Tshiebwe to double-double status and finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Toppin also blocked two shots doled out two assists and made six of seven shots.

It’s hard to overstate what a boost it would be for Kentucky if it can consistently get Toppin going in road games.

2. Cats suddenly have great balance. Continuing his recent strong play, Antonio Reeves led Kentucky in scoring with 16 points and was relatively efficient (7 of 14 field goals, 2 of 5 treys) in how he scored.

UK had two players with double-doubles. Oscar Tshiebwe finished with 15 points and 13 boards, while Jacob Toppin went for 12 and 10.

CJ Fredrick went for 10 points on 4-for-8 shooting, 2-for-5 treys, and dished out five assists. Cason Wallace had 10 points and five rebounds.

In 22 mostly effective minutes off the bench, Sahvir Wheeler had four points, five assists and a steal.

Given that it was a road game vs. an SEC opponent that has played fairly well recently, this might have been UK’s best all-around performance of 2022-23 to date.

3. Kentucky owns the glass. Kentucky won the battle of the boards, 37-24.

Starting with the season-turning victory at then-No. 5 Tennessee four games ago, UK’s margin on the glass has been dominant. UK outrebounded the Volunteers by 20; outrebounded Georgia by 13, Texas A&M by seven and Vandy by 13.

4. Cats continue mastery over Vandy. Kentucky has now beaten Vanderbilt 14 times in a row. The Commodores’ most-recent win in the series came on Feb. 27, 2016, a 74-62 win in Nashville.

In alphabetical order, below is the current streak for Kentucky against each of its current SEC rivals:

Alabama: Lost one.

Arkansas: Lost two.

Auburn: Lost one.

Florida: Won two.

Georgia: Won two

LSU: Won two.

Mississippi: Won one.

Mississippi State: Won one.

Missouri: Lost one.

South Carolina: Lost one.

Tennessee: Won one.

Texas A&M: Won four.

Vanderbilt: Won 14.

5. UK gains on KU in all-time wins. With its victory Tuesday night, Kentucky now has 2,367 all-time wins. UK is now six games behind all-time wins leader Kansas.

The Jayhawks will come to Lexington for the SEC/Big 12 Challenge meeting with the Cats with 2,373 victories.

Given how well the Cats are playing, Rupp is going to be rowdy Saturday night.

Kentucky basketball’s winning streak gets something new. A UK victory with no drama.

Box score from Kentucky basketball’s 69-53 victory at Vanderbilt

First Scouting Report: In battle of blue bloods, UK seeks to extend Kansas losing skid