QUICK TAKES: Kentucky 87, North Carolina 83
Kentucky's Rob Dillingham and North Carolina's RJ Davis battled for a loose ball on Saturday in the CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta. (Jordan Godfrey/USA Today Sports)
Jeff Drummond • CatsIllustrated
Managing Editor Edit
@JDrumUK
In our regular postgame feature, the Cats Illustrated staff offers its first impressions from Kentucky's 87-83 win over No. 9 North Carolina on Saturday at the CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta...
JEFF DRUMMOND:
This was a much-needed, resume-building win for Kentucky. It felt a little bit like a tournament game. I thought the Wildcats showed a lot of toughness, both physically and mentally, against a veteran North Carolina squad. John Calipari has to be thrilled with the way they closed out the game. Antonio Reeves and Aaron Bradshaw each came up with a huge offensive rebound in the final minute of play, and the Cats knocked down four of those last six free throws to seal the deal. Rebounds were a big key to this win. Kentucky won the battle on the glass 42-32, including an 18-6 advantage on the offensive end. The Cats were +9 in second-chance points, basically the difference in the game. Every time the Tar Heels made a run in this one -- rallying from 11 down in the first half and 12 down in the second half -- UK had an answer.
DAVID SISK:
That was a great game. Neither team probably believes they played their best game and they still combined for 170 points. That tells you the talent that was on the floor. It was an all-around effort for Kentucky, but D.J. Wagner and Rob Dillingham made play after play down the stretch. On the other side, R.J. Davis was magical to keep North Carolina within striking distance. Enough can’t be said about the big men and defensive strategy that allowed only four shot attempts by Armando Bacot. They also did a nice job late job on Cormac Ryan who was on fire for the first 30 minutes. Big Blue Nation will be on fire about this team going into SEC play, and why not? Very, very impressive games against North Carolina, Miami, and Kansas.
TRAVIS GRAF:
What a fantastic game. It seems like every Kentucky-North Carolina game in the series is electric and this one was great as well. Kentucky now has a complete team with rim protection added as well as better rebounding. It was a great team win for Kentucky in a resume builder, and the offense was as good as you could expect with added some post presence. The freshmen stepped up in a big way, and Bradshaw had a more immediate impact than I expected.
JUSTIN ROWLAND:
That was a huge win for Kentucky, in terms of the resume, the pulse of the fan base, and the confidence of the team. The reason I think this win was huge was Kentucky had to do a lot of things to win. Ugo had to give them some solid minutes down low. Bradshaw had to show competitive spirit against a big matchup problem for him. DJ Wagner went up against a clutch senior guard. Kentucky had to manufacture points by hitting hard shots and getting looks in different types of ways. Tournament type of win, Elite Eight kind of game.
