Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball's blowout of No. 5 Kansas
LAWRENCE, Kansas - Kentucky basketball traveled to Kansas looking for a resume-boosting win. It left with the kind of statement victory that will leave no choice but to view the Wildcats as one of the favorites to win a national championship.
Behind a career-high 27 points from junior forward Keion Brooks, No. 13 Kentucky dominated No. 5 Kansas 80-62 in its home arena. The win snapped Kansas's 17-game Allen Fieldhouse winning streak. It was UK's first win in the building since Dec. 1983. The 18-point win marked Kentucky's largest margin of victory against a top-five team on the road in program history.
Kentucky led by 20 points at halftime and never by fewer than 14 points in the second half. Seven different UK players scored within the first eight minutes of the game.
National Player of the Year candidate Oscar Tshiebwe posted another double-double with 17 points and 14 rebounds while playing stout defense throughout. Super senior guard Kellan Grady (12) and junior forward Jacob Toppin (11) also finished in double figures.
Here is what you need to know about the win.
Kentucky basketball: After blowout of Kansas, UK has to be considered a favorite for title
Keion Brooks stars with career-best performance
John Calipari has frequently pointed to areas other than scoring to judge Brooks' performance, so it was likely a sign of good things to come when Brooks grabbed Kentucky's first two rebounds of the game and turned one into a put-back dunk.
"The way he came out tonight, he was unbelievable, Tshiebwe said of Brooks. "I’m so proud of him."
It was Brooks who took over the game in the second half to prevent Kansas from pulling back into the game. Tshiebwe opened the second half with a jumper, but Brooks scored the Wildcats next 15 points. When Kansas mounted a mini 7-0 run to bring the capacity Allen Fieldhouse crowd back into the game, Brooks silenced the run with a mid-range jumper.
Brooks hit 9 of 16 shots and 9 of 10 free throws on the night. He grabbed five offensive boards and scored nine second-chance points. Brooks was credited with just one assist, but that pass, a feed to Oscar Tshiebwe in the post might have been Kentucky's best pass all season.
"Please don’t say 27 points," Calipari said. "He rebounded. He defended. He came off the weakside on a lob and tipped it away. They called a foul, but it was a great play. He was switching all the stuff. And then he made shots.
"What if he missed four or five shots? That’s OK. Do all that other stuff. But I was proud of him."
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ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi had slotted Kentucky as a No. 3 seed entering the afternoon, but the biggest hole in the Wildcats' resume was a lack of top-level wins.
Kentucky missed the chance for statement wins at LSU and at Auburn when injuries to Sahvir Wheeler and TyTy Washington left the Wildcats shorthanded down the stretch of both games, but a full-strength Kentucky team certainly look like one of the four best in the country in Lawrence. Kentucky is now 4-4 in Quadrant 1 games (NET top 25 at home, top 50 in neutral sites and top 75 on the road) with six more Quadrant 1 games on the regular season schedule.
The NCAA Tournament selection committee cannot give Kentucky credit for wins it did not earn, but the team's record when at full strength is hard to criticize. There are plenty of opportunities left for Kentucky to take that decision out of the committee's hands. Take care of business in the remaining road games and marquee home contests against LSU and Alabama, and Kentucky will have a resume that compares with almost any.
"Every time we plays as team like this, I don’t think anybody can stop us," Tshiebwe said.
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TyTy Washington returns from ankle injury
Leading up to the game, much of the talk centered around whether Kentucky could win without Washington, who missed Tuesday's game against Mississippi State with an ankle injury. That question was not answered because Washington played against the Jayhawks, but he did not contribute to the UK win in the way many might have expected.
Washington scored just two points on 1-of-9 shooting, but his presence was felt in several areas. Not only did Washington, Kentucky's second-leading scorer and top NBA draft prospect, draw the attention of the Kansas defense for much of the night, he also tallied three rebounds, five assists and three steals.
"TyTy created shots for a lot of different people," Tshiebwe said. "The good thing about him is he don’t even care. He just wants our team to win."
After Washington was unable to play in the second half against Auburn or as the Wildcats blew a 16-point second-half lead against Mississippi State, Calipari pointed to Washington's ability to win a one-on-one matchup when the game is on the line as being essential to Kentucky's prospects. The score was not close enough to test that theory at Kansas, but Washington proved his worth nonetheless.
"They asked me after what was the difference; our guards were healthy," Calipari said. "We had healthy guards. Keion played well, Jacob played well, Oscar was a beast. ... But we were healthy at guard."
Email Jon Hale at jahale@courier-journal.com; Follow him on Twitter at @JonHale_CJ.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky basketball: Keion Brooks leads UK to blowout of Kansas
