No. 4 Kansas outlasts No. 7 Kentucky in slugfest: 3 things we learned

The No. 4 Kansas Jayhawks didn’t win any style points, but toppled the No. 7 Kentucky Wildcats in the Champions Classic on Tuesday night.

Anytime that you have to programs with the pedigree of the Kansas Jayhawks and Kentucky Wildcats facing off, you know there is the potential for fireworks. However, as these two squads faced off on Tuesday night in the 2017 Champions Classic at the United Center, it was quite the contrast between the pair.

For John Calipari’s Wildcats, you were looking at a team that — as we’ve become accustomed to — was finding its footing around youth and inexperience coming into the contest. They’d not been impressive all that often in their two opening victories, and had something to prove. Meanwhile, the Jayhawks represented a veteran team that Bill Self has been with for some time now.

From the start, however, you would’ve assumed that neither team had played a college game before in their lives. The experienced veterans such as Devonte’ Graham and LaGerald Vick were struggling, but the Kentucky youngsters weren’t able to find their footing. It was a close game, sure, but nothing pretty was going on. The defense was sloppy, so was the rebounding, but the offense was a firestorm of sadness on the way to a 34-33 halftime score in favor of Kansas.

As bad as the first half was offensively overall, it was even worse in the second. Kevin Knox continued to carry the Wildcats as he did in the first half, shooting the ball incredibly well. Meanwhile, Kansas found their most success as they started feeding their big man, Udoka Azubuike, who Kentucky didn’t have an answer for the size of.

With points at a premium, it was the Jayhawks that pushed ahead late. That’s when the inexperience of Kentucky came into play as their offense looked a bit flustered in the clutch. Though Self’s group wasn’t exactly putting forth a master-class effort, they did enough and hit timely free throws down to stretch to seal the big win.

3. Devonte’ Graham has to play like a leader

As we’ve already discussed, the big narrative coming into this game was the experience of Kansas against the lack thereof for their opponents. However, that was proved to be almost a non-factor, and a big part of that was the play of the Jayhawks’ senior point guard and leader, Devonte’ Graham.

We’ve seen Graham make big plays throughout his career and step up with monster games. This was the opposite of that. He finished the contest with just 3-of-14 shooting from the field and, though he had five dimes, he also added five turnovers to his forgettable outing.

Sure, the point guard hit the two free throws with just over seven seconds left to ice the game for his team. However, that’s the type of clutch effort he has to put forth from the opening tip in matchups such as this. When you look at the Wildcats, you can blame it on youth as to why they struggled in the key moments at the end of the second half. Graham doesn’t have such excuses, and must be better in the big games and moments for Kansas to reach their potential.

2. Kentucky is just fine

In their first two games of the season, things actually looked relatively dire for Kentucky. They were trailing at halftime to Utah Valley (‘WHO?!’ is an appropriate response here) and needed a big second half to pull that win out. And though Vermont is a quality mid-major team, Coach Cal’s group should be toppling them by more than four points.

Though this performance was certainly ugly, they also undoubtedly proved that they’re going to be just fine. With a guy like Knox finally stepping up, you saw the flashes of what this team can and most likely eventually will be as the season progresses. It’s a time-honored tradition under Calipari at this point, these young teams needing to get their footing. You can see them doing so with each game, and a test like this where they hung tough for 40 minutes is exactly the type of stepping stone to help them get to the next level when it matters.

1. Good luck stopping Udoka Azubuike

During the second half, the big reason that Kansas was able to find any source of consistent offense was the play of center Udoka Azubuike. At 7-foot and 280 pounds, he’s an absolute behemoth, but he’s also a smart player on the interior that can get open for the ball and then skillfully find the bottom of the net. That’s what they looked for him to do when it mattered, and he was able to do it — though it would’ve helped if he could hit a free throw.

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Trials from the charity stripe aside, though, the rest of college basketball should be very afraid of Azubuike. There are few players on any team in the country that can contend with the blend of size and strength that the center brings to the table. And with the shooters that surround him on the perimeter of the Jayhawks lineup, you even saw in an ugly game why this team is going to be so dangerous from the start of the year all the way to the end.