Earlier in the SEC schedule, when Kentucky rattled off eight out of nine wins, the lone blemish jumped off the page. Sandwiched in between a home win against Ole Miss and a road win at Arkansas, the Wildcats were rocked by 25 points in Nashville. UK was blown out from start to finish against Vanderbilt on Jan. 27, only managing 55 points, which remains a season-low.
A little over a month later, revenge was clearly at the forefront of Kentucky’s mind. The Wildcats dominated Vandy is similar fashion, cruising to a 91-77 victory. Vanderbilt led for only 18 seconds, trailed by 15 at halftime, and was down by as many as 22 points in the second half. It was one of the best start-to-finish performances we’ve seen from Mark Pope‘s group all season long.
Losing by 25 points was already enough to get Kentucky riled up for round two, but some of the comments by Vandy players before and after round one struck a nerve that stuck with them ever since.
“This Vandy team, I think, is a team that challenges you physically and your toughness,” Sophomore guard Collin Chandler said postgame. “And they made a few comments last game, last time we played them, about that. I think it was important for us to make a statement to do that.
“They’re challenging our toughness, our manhood. Kinda punked us… Super personal.”
Chandler, in particular, was much better in the rematch. After scoring four points the first time out, he responded with a career-high 23 points on six made three-pointers on Saturday. But he was hardly the only Wildcat who took the January loss personally.
Cats ROLL in revenge game
from a BIG win!
UK's backcourt scores 61!
Breathe, BBN!
Take that, Vandy!
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“They was talking crazy before last game, saying we weak, all this,” Senior guard Otega Oweh said. “And that physicality, we struggle with that. So definitely was personal. Just trying to set the tone. I feel like we could have done that the first game, as well. We didn’t, but this time around we just wanted to make sure we was the more physical team.”
“We saw a couple of clips from their press conference after the game. We took those to heart,” Freshman center Malachi Moreno added. “I think today we were just gonna punch them in the mouth early and just let them know that’s not us.”
Kentucky punched first — and then second and third and fourth. It was a 21-14 lead for the Wildcats at the first media timeout. With five minutes to play in the first half, UK was doubling up the ‘Dores, 40-20. Every time it looked like Vanderbilt might scrape together a scoring run, the ‘Cats found ways to shut them down. This win was about more than just basketball. It was about pride.
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Cats ROLL in revenge game
from a BIG win!
UK's backcourt scores 61!
Breathe, BBN!
Take that, Vandy!
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