College basketball: No. 2 Kansas rallies past No. 4 Kentucky

With a raucous Rupp Arena crowd of 24,418 that broke a world record for loudest indoor crowd roar prior to the game, Kentucky took a 12-point lead on three separate occasions in the first half.

“I thought we showed extreme upperclassman leadership tonight”, KU coach Bill Self said after the win.

“I thought Landen played very smart”, Self said.

Kentucky’s next game is Tuesday at 9 pm hosting Georgia.

The teams first played on December 16, 1950.

Josh Jackson put up a double-double, scoring 20 points on 9-17 shooting and grabbing 10 rebounds. And the pregame atmosphere featured a lot of noise, hype and excitement.

“I’ve just got to be better getting plays down”.

When asked how his team handled what he had called a “major distraction”, Self said, “I thought it was great”.

Kansas comes into the bout with Kentucky having won 18 of its first 20 games to start the season.

And while the Wildcats weren’t able to solve Kansas in the second half, they were the stronger side at the start.

“There’s not gonna be any educational tapes on that zone tonight”, Self said.

“I just think we didn’t play winning basketball down the stretch”. Normally we don’t turn it over like we do the last few games.

Added Mason of the switch to zone: “Hopefully we don’t have to do that moving forward because we take pride in playing man-to-man, but whatever helps us get the win, we’re willing to do”.

Of course, you need to keep your eyes on freshman phenom Josh Jackson. That all changed as the Jayhawks opened the second half with back-to-back treys and missed just 14 shots on 34 attempts. Wildcats’ leading scorer this season, Malik Monk, did just that for Kentucky in the loss, racking up 25 points on 8 of 19 shooting with 3 triples. It briefly fell behind 33-32, then quickly recovered, a three pointer by Mt. Washington’s Derek Willis nosed Kentucky back in front 35-33.

On a floor hosting the nation’s two best backcourts, in a game featuring a mass of prodigious National Basketball Association talent, in front of a hostile crowd that spent a portion of the pregame attempting – successfully! – to set the Guinness World Record for “loudest indoor noise”, no player was more important than. fifth-year senior Kansas forward Landen Lucas? He flies in for a layup that forces Kansas to take a time out.

Jackson was a big reason for that.

The game was mostly in the hands of the familiar faces and the young freshman star. Their best win now comes against North Carolina, and they needed Monk to score 47 points in that outing. Kentucky coach John Calipari said the Wildcats made things harder than they really were at times, resulting in poor decision-making on offense, only magnifying the team’s overall inexperience. Why would you ball fake him and then run a guy over. “He’s an unbelievable player”. The Jayhawks won at St. Joe’s on December 9 and at St. John’s on December 12.

Kansas made 50 percent of its shots (32 of 64). Junior guard Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk sealed the game with two late free throws.

And that’s what the Wildcats failed to do against the Jayhawks. The UK football team is introduced and the roof is about to come down. “I just felt this was the best fit”, he said. And moving ahead 54-49 on a bomb by DeVonte’ Graham.