Game Summary:

Kentucky used a hot-shooting first half to cruise to an 18-point win. Kansas could never recover from the large first-half deficit it found itself in. It lost the battle of the boards (41-29) and second chance points (17-6); other than that the game was a more respectable margin.

Mitch Lightfoot earned his first game MVP of the season, battling on the boards and winning three additional defensive possessions by forcing a non-steal turnover. He did a far better job of guarding Kentucky’s center than David McCormack did. Bobby Pettiford played solid defense and even added a late basket in his 10 minutes of work. Dejuan Harris was also respectable. Remy Martin and Jalen Coleman-Lands finished slightly positive in limited minutes off the bench.

On the other side of the value ledger, starting wings Christian Braun and Ochai Agbaji had slightly negative value games Saturday night. Neither shot great. K.J. Adams had a tough defensive game at times, but did finish two assisted baskets. Joseph Yesufu had a couple missed shots, a turnover, and a rebound in his few minutes of play.

These players combined were about -2 points unadjusted, meaning that these players cumulatively played well enough to only be down 2 points to Kentucky. Thus the reason for the blowout was largely due to the poor play of the next two players, Jalen Wilson and especially David McCormack.

Wilson had a poor shooting game, whereas his counterpart 4 man (Brooks) had a career-high 27. Wilson did grab 8 rebounds, but it was his second-worst game of the season once adjusted for opponent. David McCormack was outplayed by Kentucky’s center (Tshiebwe), as he gave up 16 points in only 15 minutes of court time. It was McCormack’s second-worst game of the season, and his second very poor game in a row.

In closing, no one played great for Kansas, but the reason for the blowout loss was primarily due to the 4 and 5 positions. Both were constantly out of position on defense, and didn’t make enough plays to recover.