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Injury-riddled #6 Kentucky ends two-game skid with road upset of #8 Tennessee

Kentucky has been the kings of balanced scoring so far this season, boasting a top three offense nationally with six players above 9.5 ppg. The injury bug hit the Wildcats hard recently though, with Andrew Carr logging just one minute over the last two games and starting point guard Lamont Butler missing Tuesday’s clash with Tennessee. Backup Kerr Kriisa has been injured since early December, leaving Kentucky with zero point guards in a massive SEC game last night.

With the nation’s second ranked defense, Tennessee, hosting the Wildcats without their starting point guard, the ball pressure applied by Zakai Zeigler and Jahmai Mashack figured to be a large factor. As always though, Kentucky used a handful of guys to ease into its offense with another elite gameplan from Mark Pope. Jaxson Robinson became the de-facto point guard as we’ve seen at other times this season, with Pope having a lot of trust in Robinson dating back to their BYU days together.

Robinson scored 17 points on the night and while he only recorded one assist, his ability to handle the pressure was crucial to Kentucky being able to put up 78 points on Tennessee, the most the Volunteers have given up this season. Robinson started fast with 11 points in the first half, and in the second half handed off the bulk of the scoring to Koby Brea and Amari Williams.

Brea and Williams would combine for 23 of Kentucky’s 48 second half points, as Brea finished with a team-high 18 points and Williams recorded ten points, 15 rebounds, and four assists. Williams has had a handful of solid games at Kentucky after coming in from Drexel this offseason, but this may have been the best I’ve seen him at in a Kentucky uniform. Williams was another guy asked to handle the ball a lot more than he usually would, with ballhandling skills a lot better than whoever was tasked with guarding him defensively. He and Robinson were the keys to Kentucky breaking through Tennessee’s pressure and it allowed this Kentucky team to roll, especially in the second half.

After falling in back-to-back games to Alabama and Vanderbilt, this wasn’t necessarily a must-win for Kentucky, but if the Wildcats wanted to keep pace with the pack in the top third of the SEC, a win would go a long way. A 78-73 final score put the Wildcats back above .500 in SEC play at 4-3, notching them a game back of third place.

It’s wait-and-see as to when Butler and Carr will be fully healthy again, but in an unforgiving SEC, even with a deep and balanced team, Kentucky will need two of its most important players back sooner than later if it wants to keep up the momentum gained Tuesday in Knoxville.

Other Things to Note:

• #7 Michigan State wins 13th straight with 73-51 dismantling of Minnesota
• Zeke Mayo’s 24 points holds off UCF late as #11 Kansas wins 91-87
• Fast start for #15 St. John’s leads to 66-41 road route of Georgetown
• #21 Louisville up to 9-1 in ACC play after beating Wake Forest 72-59
• Top 15 matchup in Starkville awaits as #4 Alabama visits #14 Mississippi State (9:00 ET, SECN)