Five things you need to know from No. 15 Kentucky’s 93-77 Senior Night win over Vandy
Five things you need to know from No. 15 Kentucky’s 93-77 Senior Night win over Vanderbilt in men’s SEC basketball at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center:
1. Senior Night. For the final regular season home game of 2023-24, UK super-seniors Antonio Reeves and Tre Mitchell and senior walk-on Kareem Watkins all got to start.
The 5-foot-8 Watkins, who has yet to score in his UK career, got to play the first 1:06 of the game. He did not take a shot, but did claim a defensive rebound.
Mitchell, who is returning after missing time late in the season with, first a back problem, then a shoulder injury, got in the scorer’s column with 7:20 left in the game on a layup set up by a Reed Sheppard dish. He finished with two points and a rebound in 12 minutes.
Reeves continued his stellar final season of college basketball by going for 20 points, six rebounds and four assists.
Afterward, both Mitchell and Reeves took a microphone and saluted the Rupp Arena fans.
2. Calipari back on track on Senior Night. UK’s victory on Senior Night marked a return to form in senior-recognition games for Kentucky head man John Calipari.
After winning his first 10 Senior Day/Night games as UK head man, Calipari had lost three of the past four Senior Day/Night games before Wednesday night’s win.
In the Rupp Arena era (since 1976-77), Kentucky is now 42-6 in Senior Night contests.
Joe B. Hall went 9-0 in such games at Rupp Arena (he was also 4-0 in regular season home finales at Memorial Coliseum); Eddie Sutton was 4-0; Rick Pitino 7-1; Tubby Smith 9-1; Billy Gillispie 1-1; and Calipari is now 12-3.
3. UK freshman guards roast Vandy. Kentucky’s 3-headed freshman backcourt took it to Vanderbilt.
Rob Dillingham led UK with 23 points. The 6-foot-2, 176-pound product of Hickory, North Carolina, hit 9 of 15 shots, 3 of 4 treys and both his free throws. After Vanderbilt led for most of the first half, it was a patented “Dillingham explosion” just before halftime that pushed UK into control of the game.
Dillingham scored 12 of UK’s final 20 first-half points, all in the final 4:07 before intermission, as UK went from 30-25 down to 45-40 up at halftime.
D.J. Wagner continued to shoot well from behind the 3-point arc, as he hit 3 of 5 treys and finished the game with 11 points, four rebounds and five assists.
Even though it did not feel like Reed Sheppard had his “A game,” the former North Laurel High School star tied his career high, previously set against Louisville, with 11 assists. Sheppard also had eight points.
4. Reeves on the all-time scoring list. Kentucky super-senior Antonio Reeves scored five points in the last 1:08 of the game to extend his streak of games with at least 20 points scored to six.
Reeves now has 1,088 points for his two-year UK career, and moved past Dirk Minniefield (1,069), Rex Chapman (1,073) and Billy Ray Lickert (1,076) for 50th place on the all-time Wildcats scoring list. Now immediately ahead of Reeves among Kentucky’s all-time scoring leaders is No. 49 Jeff Sheppard (1,091).
Among players who only played two seasons for UK, Reeves moved ahead Chapman (1,073) into third place, behind only No. 2. Oscar Tshiebwe (1,117) and No. 1 Bill Spivey (1,213).
In his three seasons at Illinois State (2019-2022) before transferring to Kentucky, Reeves scored 1,195 points.
That means he now has 2,283 career points overall as a collegian.
5. Home, not-as-sweet home. With the victory over Vanderbilt, Kentucky finished its 2023-24 home season with a 14-4 record at Rupp Arena.
As UK head man, John Calipari lost only four total home games in first seven seasons (2009-10 through 2015-16) combined.
However, Calipari and UK have now lost at least four home games in three of the past four seasons.
The Wildcats went 5-6 at Rupp Arena in 2020-21 and have been 14-4 in each of the past two seasons.
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