Five things you need to know from No. 6 Kentucky’s 90-77 win over Missouri

Five things you need to know from No. 6 Kentucky’s 90-77 win over the Missouri Tigers in men’s SEC basketball at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center:

1. Dilly, Dilly, Dilly. One thing about the “Rob Dillingham Show,” it is never dull.

On Saturday in Gainesville, the UK freshman guard produced a horrid first half, turning the ball over four times before halftime. To his credit, Dillingham rallied in half two to make a positive contribution (six points) to Kentucky’s 87-85 win over Florida.

Against Missouri on Tuesday night at Rupp Arena, the 6-foot-2, 176-pound Dillingham was simply electric.

In spite of minimal minutes (19) due to foul trouble, Dillingham rifled in a team-high 23 points. The Hickory, North Carolina, product drilled all three of his 3-point attempts, hit 6 of 7 shots overall and 8 of 10 foul shots.

When Dillingham is “on,” there is not a more entertaining men’s college basketball player in the country.

2. One UK player streak extends, one ends. Kentucky super-senior power forward Tre Mitchell ran his “game with at least 10 rebounds” streak to four.

The 6-9, 231-pound Pittsburgh product, a transfer from West Virginia, produced another stellar all-around game vs. Missouri, going for 20 points, 14 rebounds and three assists.

Mitchell’s 14-rebound performance followed games of 10 rebounds at Florida, 11 vs. Illinois State and 12 at Louisville.

It is hard to overstate how fortunate Kentucky is that Mitchell “fell into the Wildcats’ lap” after former WVU coach Bob Huggins’ off-the-court issues led to a transfer.

Meanwhile, Antonio Reeves’ 24-game streak with at least one made trey ended. The 6-6, 195-pound super-senior went 0-of-5 from behind the arc.

Before Tuesday night, the previous time Reeves did not make at least one 3-pointer in a game came when he did not attempt one in a 72-67 win over Florida at Rupp Arena on Feb. 4, 2023.

Even as his 3-point streak ended, Reeves’ performance Tuesday night showed how his game has progressed since last season.

With his jumper “off,” Reeves nevertheless contributed 14 points and six rebounds to the Wildcats’ cause.

His three field goals (3-of-9) came on runners and a dunk. Reeves also got to the foul line eight times — and cashed them all.

3. Cats thrive in SEC home openers. In the John Calipari coaching era (since 2009-10), Kentucky is now 14-1 in its initial Southeastern Conference home game of each season.

To date, the only time UK has lost its SEC home opener under Calipari came in 2012-13, when Texas A&M got 40 points from Elston Turner and hung an 83-71 loss on Kentucky at Rupp Arena on Jan. 12, 2013.

4. Calipari closing in on milestone win. With Tuesday night’s victory, John Calipari’s record as Kentucky head coach is now 399-115. He will go for win No. 400 as UK head man Saturday at Texas A&M.

5. Now there are only two. Missouri’s loss dropped second-year Tigers coach Dennis Gates to 1-1 vs. Kentucky. That means there are presently only two current SEC head men who have winning overall records vs. UK — Eric Musselman of Arkansas is 3-2 vs. the Wildcats, while South Carolina’s Lamont Paris is 1-0.

Tennessee head man Rick Barnes is 10-9 vs. UK while at UT but is 11-11 overall.

Records of current SEC head coaches vs. UK:

▪ Alabama: Nate Oats 3-4

▪ Arkansas: Eric Musselman 3-2

▪ Auburn: Bruce Pearl 10-17-*

▪ Florida: Todd Golden 0-3

▪ Georgia: Mike White 5-11-^

▪ LSU: Matt McMahon 0-1

▪ Mississippi: Chris Beard 0-1-x

▪ Mississippi State: Chris Jans 0-1

▪ Missouri: Dennis Gates 1-1

▪ South Carolina: Lamont Paris 1-0

▪ Tennessee: Rick Barnes 11-11-y

▪ Texas A&M: Buzz Williams 0-4-z

▪ Vanderbilt: Jerry Stackhouse 2-8

* — Pearl is 5-7 vs. UK at Auburn; he was 5-10 vs. the Cats as Tennessee head man (2005-2011).

^ — White is 1-1 vs. UK at Georgia; he was 4-10 vs. the Cats as Florida head man (2015-2022).

x — Beard has yet to coach vs. UK as Ole Miss coach; he lost to the Cats 76-74 in overtime in the 2019-20 SEC/Big 12 Challenge while coaching Texas Tech.

y — Before going 10-9 vs. UK as Tennessee coach (since 2015-16), Barnes was 1-1 vs. the Cats as Clemson head man and 0-1 against Kentucky while coaching Texas.

z — Williams went 0-1 vs. Kentucky as Virginia Tech head man and is 0-3 so far at Texas A&M.

Kentucky spreads the offense around again, beats Missouri in SEC basketball home opener

Box score from No. 6 Kentucky basketball’s 90-77 SEC win over Missouri

SEC college basketball final: Kentucky 90, Missouri 77

First Scouting Report: Can UK survive road game with veteran, physical Texas A&M?

Why Kentucky basketball could be sitting on a big advantage for March Madness

Once the SEC moves exclusively to ESPN, can UK basketball play in the CBS Sports Classic?

In 2023-24, John Calipari is resurrecting a Kentucky basketball tradition

Has Calipari found a hidden edge for Kentucky basketball in 2023-24?

These three trends should worry Kentucky football coach Mark Stoops

At age 59, ex-Cat Maurice Douglass fulfills promise to his mom by graduating from UK

In the SEC football scheduling war, has Kentucky fought the wrong battle?