Five things you need to know from No. 8 UK’s dominant 96-70 win over Illinois State
Five things you need to know from No. 8 Kentucky’s 96-70 win over the Illinois State Redbirds in men’s college basketball at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center:
1. Antonio Reeves’ reunion. Before he became a Kentucky Wildcats shooting star, the Chicago product developed as a college basketball player in three seasons (2019 through 2022) playing for Illinois State.
Over those three years, Reeves grew his season scoring averages from 7.2 points as a freshman to 12.4 as a sophomore to 20.1 in his junior year. The latter figure, produced in 2021-22, made Reeves the leading scorer in the Missouri Valley Conference.
For those three seasons, Reeves scored 1,195 points in the Illinois State uniform.
On Friday night, Reeves showed the Redbirds what they are missing.
The 6-foot-6, 195-pound super-senior scored UK’s first basket on a driving runner in the lane 1:28 into the contest and never slowed down.
Reeves had 12 points, on 5-of-8 shooting, by halftime. The Chicago product added 15 more points in half two, and finished with a game-high 27 points on 10-for-15 shooting, including 4 of 8 3-pointers and 3 of 3 free throws.
Continuing to display an improved all-around acumen to his game, Reeves also added six rebounds and a pair of assists.
All in all, Reeves produced about as good a “playing reunion” as one could have wished.
2. Bradshaw and Wagner’s bounce-back. Kentucky’s 95-76 win at Louisville last week did not yield bountiful performances for UK freshmen Aaron Bradshaw and D.J. Wagner.
The former high school teammates from New Jersey’s Camden High School were both ardently recruited by U of L coach Kenny Payne and staff. Whether or not that caused the duo to “press” against the Cardinals, both players struggled against Louisville.
While battling foul trouble, the 7-foot-1 Bradshaw played only 21 minutes and had two points, four rebounds and a blocked shot. The 6-4 Wagner never really got untracked in the game, and finished with two points, one rebound and one assist while making only 1 of 6 shots.
Against Illinois State, Wagner bounced back with a solid showing, going for 14 points and three assists with only one turnover.
Bradshaw, however, had another game of meager production. He finished with two points and one rebound in 15 minutes, and never looked comfortable in the game.
3. Better to give. Kentucky entered Friday night’s game third in the nation in team assist-to-turnover ratio, having assisted on 210 baskets while committing 107 turnovers.
It was more of the same against Illinois State.
Of UK’s 36 made field goals, 23 were assisted. Those 23 assists were contrasted with only six turnovers.
4. Lighting up the scoreboard. Kentucky backers who in recent years have been calling for a more wide-open brand of basketball have, so far, been getting that and more from the 2023-24 Cats.
UK entered Friday’s game fourth in the nation at 90.6 points a game. The Wildcats went over that average against Illinois State and have now scored at least 81 points in every game this season except for one — the 80-73 upset loss to UNC Wilmington.
What will be interesting to watch as SEC play commences starting next Saturday at Florida and Kentucky starts facing major-conference competition every night is whether more experienced, talented teams that want to control tempo can slow the Cats down and get them out of their offensive comfort zone.
Stay tuned.
5. UK trying to fight off KU in all-time wins race. In the battle to be men’s Division I college basketball’s all-time wins leader, Kansas passed Kentucky for the lead during the 2022 NCAA Tournament. The Jayhawks finished that 2021-22 season with a 2,357-2,353 advantage over UK.
Last season, the Jayhawks (28-8) added six more victories to their all-time lead over the Wildcats (22-12) and ended 2022-23 with a 10-win advantage, 2,385-2,375.
During the offseason, however, the NCAA ordered KU to vacate 15 victories from the 2017-18 season after a Kansas player was retroactively ruled to be ineligible. Those vacated victories returned the all-time wins lead to Kentucky, which officially entered the 2023-24 season with a 2,375-2,370 lead over Kansas.
So far this season, Kansas has been gaining on Kentucky again.
With Friday night’s win, UK (10-2) pushed its all-time wins lead over KU (11-1) back to four victories, 2,385-2,381.
The Jayhawks will get a chance Saturday to pull back within three when Kansas faces Wichita State in a neutral site game in Kansas City.
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