Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s pre-Thanksgiving win over North Florida
Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s 96-56 roast of North Florida on Wednesday at Rupp Arena.
1. Home sweet home
Familiar surrounds and overmatched foes sit well with this Kentucky team. The Cats are now 4-0 at home with wins over the likes of Howard, Duquesne, South Carolina State and North Florida. Those teams are ranked 277th, 116th, 347th and 225th, respectively, by Ken Pomeroy’s advanced analytics.
Wednesday’s win was full of pre-Thanksgiving stats stuffers. Jacob Toppin scored a career-high 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds Oscar Tshiebwe added 16 points, 15 rebounds and a career-high five assists. It was Oscar’s 31st double-double in his 38 games wearing the blue and white. Ugonna Onyenso also hit the double-digit rebounds number with 10 to go with his seven points.
Then there was Antonio Reeves, the Illinois State transfer who got his first starting assignment. He responded by scoring 18 points in the first half and finished with 20.
Again, Kentucky shot the three-ball well in Rupp, at least in the first half. But after making seven of 15 behind the line the first 20 minutes, the Cats cooled off in the second, going 2-for-9 to finish 9 of 24 for the game.
All in all, after the Spokane trip, it was good to be back home for the Cats, who led 54-23 at the half, the 31-point spread being their widest halftime margin since leading UCLA 41-7 in the 2014 Champions Classic.
2. So what did Kentucky get out of the win?
After that 16-point loss at Gonzaga on Sunday night, the Cats probably regained a bit of confidence by overwhelming the Ospreys, a team that had lost to Gonzaga 104-63 in their season opener.
Kentucky did shoot 47.9 percent for the game while holding North Florida to 34.5 percent. The Ospreys were 6 of 21 from three-point range. And the Cats battered the visitors on the boards 50-35. The home team also committed just seven turnovers.
The biggest positive was the way Kentucky shared the basketball. UK ended up 23 assists on 35 made field goals. UNF head coach Matt Driscoll said he was impressed by Kentucky’s 15 first-half assists.
Cason Wallace led UK with six assists before he left the game after knocking knees with a North Florida player. (Calipari said afterward the freshman was fine.) Besides Tshiebwe’s six assists, Sahvir Wheeler was credited with five, compared to just one turnover.
3. After an interesting test, it’s off to London
Despite Wednesday’s win, the truth of the matter is Kentucky doesn’t get another shot to really prove itself until the Dec. 4 game in London against Michigan.
Not that the Cats should overlook Bellarmine next Tuesday. Scotty Davenport’s Knights are to be taken seriously. They have lost tough games on the road to Morehead State (62-55), Clemson (76-66) and Duke (74-57). They’re not afraid to travel.
In fact, Bellarmine takes a 2-3 record into a West Coast trip that includes a Friday night game at Loyola Marymount and a Sunday game at UCLA.
“Who scheduled Bellarmine?” Calipari mockingly asked on his postgame radio show. “They’re good.”
Michigan is even better, though the Wolverines were whipped 87-62 by Arizona State last week. Overall, Juwan Howard’s team was 4-1 heading into Wednesday night’s game against Jackson State.
The London matchup will feature Tshiebwe against Michigan’s 7-foot-1 center Hunter Dickinson, who is averaging 20.4 points and 9.0 rebounds per game. The junior scored 24 points and grabbed 14 rebounds in Michigan’s 70-66 overtime win over Ohio. He scored 31 points in the season-opening win over Eastern Michigan.
Before then, however, Kentucky gets some much-needed practice time. There’s five days until the Bellarmine game, then a couple of more days before the Cats take the flight across the pond.
“This next week of practice is vital to get us right,” Calipari said.
Box score from No. 15 Kentucky basketball’s 96-56 Thanksgiving Eve win over North Florida
Five things you need to know from No. 15 Kentucky’s 96-56 win over North Florida
First Scouting Report: When Bellarmine faces UK, state basketball history will be made
