No. 19 Kentucky men’s basketball recorded the first statement win of the Mark Pope era at UK on Tuesday, besting No. 6 Duke 77-72 in the State Farm Champions Classic.
While a huge win for the program in the macro, the victory also had plenty of very notable takeaways that say a lot about the capabilities of the team as it moves forward into the season on a smaller scale.
Perhaps one of the biggest takeaways from the result was that Kentucky defeated the Blue Devils in spite of an abysmal performance from its expected superstar Jaxson Robinson.
Robinson, like most of the roster, came to Kentucky from the transfer portal as the Ada, Oklahoma, native followed his head coach from BYU.
Where Robinson differs from most of his current teammates is that his decision in the offseason had less to do with what team he’d play for and a lot more to do with whether or not he’d return to college at all after being seen as a viable NBA draft candidate.
Coming off a season in which he averaged 14.2 points per game with the Cougars and shot 35% from beyond the arch, expectations were high for Robinson swapping out his white and blue for… blue and white.
He was somewhat quiet in UK’s season opener against Wright State, scoring just eight, but he was a much bigger piece of the puzzle against Bucknell, dropping 14 points with two steals and four rebounds.
Heading into a date with a Duke team that hadn’t lost to UK in nearly a decade, fans were all but certain it would take a big game from Robinson for Pope and his squad to leave Atlanta alive.
Not so.
Robinson played 27 minutes against the Blue Devils inside State Farm Arena, going a flat 0-4 from the field and 0-3 from deep. The figures hardly set the world on fire and were made even worse by the fact that, when he was fouled on a 3-pointer, Robinson went just 1-3 from the charity stripe, finishing with one measly point.
In his place it was Andrew Carr, Otega Oweh and Amari Williams who took the driver’s seat, all finishing with double-digit point totals. Carr led the way with 17 while Williams was two rebounds away from another double-double this season.
Despite that, when asked about carrying the load for the game, Carr refused to throw his teammates under the bus and instead highlighted the outcome as an example of the strengths of the team.
“The team we have, in general, is just so talented,” he said. “We’re just going to keep coming at you guys throughout the game over and over again. Whether it’s going to be Otega, me and Amari tonight, it’s going to be Brandon (Garrison), Jaxson and Kerr (Kriisa) the next night. That’s what makes our team special.”
Pope himself also refused to take issue with Robinson’s struggling play, pushing back on a question that implied Kentucky won the game “without” his star.
“We didn’t win without (Jaxson), because (he) has such an impact,” Pope said. “Talk about a gravity guy, you throw Jax in the corner, it’s like four guys are leaning toward him. His numbers may not have been huge, but he has an impact when he walks in the gym. He has an impact on the scout. This team is built that way, he has an impact on all those things.”
For the Kentucky fans who had become jaded during the tenure of former head coach John Calipari, seeing a UK team be able to win big games despite poor performances from some of its best players must have been a bit of a culture shock.
Even more impressively is that Robinson’s poor play wasn’t just in a bubble, either, as sharpshooter Koby Brea also had a forgettable night, going 2-4 from deep for eight points, and Kerr Kriisa finished 2-7 from beyond the arch.
All in all, while the Cats did ultimately reach a comfortable total of 25 attempted 3-pointers, for a large swath of the game, Duke forced Kentucky to play a different style of basketball than it had become comfortable playing without some of its biggest names… and still lost.
Ultimately, it’s that which makes this UK team so special.
“Wearing Kentucky on your chest, you just have to carry yourself a certain way,” Oweh said. “You know that you’re not just playing for yourself, you’re playing a whole nation and you’re playing for your brothers. It’s a dream to play for Kentucky and it just makes everyone play harder.”
Kentucky will return to action after a week’s break on Tuesday, Nov. 19, against the Lipscomb Bison. The Cats’ next big test will come on Dec. 3 at Clemson and then on Dec. 7 against Gonzaga in Spokane. Tipoff against the Bison is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET and will air live on the SEC Network+.
