GAMEDAY on KSR, presented by Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse: Beat UAB Edition

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Good morning everyone! I hope you all had an incredible Thanksgiving holiday with your family and friends, eating plenty of food and watching football.

As we move on from all the turkey, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie, it’s time to re-focus and take on the task at hand: beating the UAB Blazers when they come to Rupp Arena on Friday night.

What do we need to know about the UAB Blazers?

Coming in at 4-1 on the season, UAB has taken on three common opponents over its last three games: Utah Valley (66-55 loss), Mount St. Mary’s (58-51 win), and Lamar (57-48 win). Their other two victories earlier in the season came against Troy on the road and at home against Alabama A&M.

On the year, UAB is currently averaging 64 points per game on 40.8% shooting overall, 26.2% from three, and 75.3% from the line, all worse than Kentucky. Inside, though, they averaged 43.0 rebounds per contest compared to UK’s 40.2, with the Blazers maintaining an impressive +13.0 rebounding margin (Kentucky is +9.4 on the year).

Looking at the roster, the Blazers have a bit more size than some of Kentucky’s previous opponents, as four players stand 6-foot-8 or taller, including two listed at 6-foot-10.

Individually, 6-foot-4 sophomore guard Tavin Lovan leads the team with 13.2 points per game to go with 5.4 rebounds on the year, while 5-foot-10 freshman guard Jalen Benjamin (12.4 PPG) rounds out the double digit scorers for the UAB program. Junior guard Zack Bryant (11.0 PPG) was dismissed from the program back on Nov. 18 due to conduct detrimental to the team.

A poor shooting team overall, Kassim Nicholson (33.3%) and Benjamin (31.6%) are the only players shooting greater than 30% from three with more than eight attempts.

Time for Kahlil Whitney to shine?

With graduate transfer Nate Sestina out for 3-4 weeks with a fractured wrist, John Calipari expects to see solid minutes out of freshman wing Kahlil Whitney as a small-ball four.

“I want to try him (Whitney) and I’ll tell you why: He’s more physical, and if we’re playing another team that has a 6-6 physical guy, I think Kahlil can play him better,” Calipari said. “And I’m not sure if there’s any fours that can guard him.”

To take it a step further, the Kentucky head coach is predicting a big game out of Whitney in the very near future.

“Here’s what I say: Kahlil last game, he was 1 for 7. OK,” he said. “But, five of those shots that he took were absolutely straight. The other two were near the basket. The other five he missed, but they were straight. You guys know how I am about that stuff. My prediction will be, if not this game, the next game he’s going to go like an 8-for-8 because he’ll make the first and he shoots them straight all of the time. There’s no variation. He’s just not making them right now.”

What do the players think about Sestina’s injury?

Whitney doesn’t see Sestina’s fractured wrist – on top of the numerous other injuries this team has dealt with – as bad injury luck. Instead, he’s taking an optimistic approach, saying the various injuries are allowing different players to thrive at different positions with others out. When Sestina returns, they’ll all be “flowing.”

“I wouldn’t say that [we are unlucky], Whitney said. “I don’t think anybody in the country practices as hard as we do. It will eventually pay off and we’ll have everybody and we’ll be flowing.”

Immediately, though, Sestina’s absence will hurt the team’s overall toughness and rebounding.

“Nate was a big part of rebounding and toughness in our team,” he said. “So guys have to step up. It’s got to be me, Keion (Brooks Jr.), Johnny Juzang playing a lot of minutes coming off the bench. We’ve just got to come in and be tough.”

Sophomore point guard Ashton Hagans expects a quick and easy recovery for Sestina.

“We know he will be back real soon,” Hagans said. “He got a little injury with his wrist, but other than that it’s just time for somebody else to step in and play their role and lead this team to something special. … We had a few ups and downs at the beginning with EJ (Montgomery), but it’s time for somebody else to step in and the next man show us what they got and do something special.”

And who might those players be?

“We’ve been through it before,” he said. “Kahlil (Whitney), it gives him a chance to get more minutes. Keion (Brooks Jr.), Johnny (Juzang), Quick (Immanuel Quickley) – time for them to step in, knock down some big-time shots and make some big-time plays.”

Kentucky basketball hands out food at the Salvation Army

In what has become a yearly tradition, the Kentucky basketball program spent their Thanksgiving mornings handing out food at the Salvation Army in Lexington.

“I hope everyone having a wonderful Thanksgiving!” Kentucky head coach John Calipari said on Twitter. “Always a special day for me when we can take our players to the Salvation Army and let them feel the type of impact they can have on others. They need to understand they’re blessed and experience how they can make a difference.”

Here are just a few of the photos from the experience:

Thanksgiving Football Results

NFL

• Chicago Bears defeat Detroit Lions 24-20
• Buffalo Bills defeat Dallas Cowboys 26-15
• New Orleans Saints defeat Atlanta Falcons 26-18

Egg Bowl

• Mississippi State defeats Ole Miss 21-20

While the final result isn’t necessarily surprising, how it came to fruition most certainly is.

Down seven, Ole Miss scored a touchdown with just four seconds to go, putting his team in position to tie the game and head to overtime.

After the score, though, Ole Miss wide receiver Elijah Moore crawled in the end zone and pretended to urinate on the Mississippi State logo, drawing a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct.

Turning a routine 20-yard extra point attempt into a 35-yarder, Ole Miss kicker Luke Logan missed the kick, ultimately losing the game.

Take a look at the absolutely ridiculous sequence:

This Egg Bowl ending was INSANE 🤯

Ole Miss scored with 4 seconds left and had a chance to tie the game with the PAT.

After a flag for the excessive celebration moved the PAT back, the kicker missed wide right and Mississippi State held on to win the Egg Bowl 21-20. pic.twitter.com/z4U7c8JukQ

— ESPN (@espn) November 29, 2019

No live KSR this morning

Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, today’s edition of KSR will be a best-of edition.

There will, however, be a KSR pregame show starting at 4:30 p.m. featuring Ryan Lemond, Drew Franklin, and myself.

Go Cats.