Kentucky demolishes UCLA, 83-44

By:LARRY VAUGHT

CHICAGO — For all the special things that coach John Calipari and fans think this Kentucky team might do, it’s hard to imagine the Cats doing anything close again to what they did to UCLA here Saturday in the CBSSports Classic.

The Wildcats didn’t just beat UCLA 83-44. They embarrassed the Bruins with a brilliant stretch of basketball to start the game.

Kentucky scored the first 24 minutes in about 7 1/2 minutes while the Bruins missed their first 17 shots. By halftime, the score was 41-7 and it eventually grew to 44 points in the second half.

“In 24 years of coaching, this is best team I have coached against. This team is really good,” said UCLA coach Steve Alford.

The Wildcats got contributions from everyone in their early spurt from eight points and three steals by Aaron Harrison, five rebounds and one block by Karl-Anthony Towns, and three assists by Andrew Harrison as the first platoon sprinted to a 16-0 lead in less than four minutes.

Second platoon? The pace slowed a bit and then Devin Booker hit two 3-pointers and got a fast break layup after a Dakari Johnson block for a the 24-0 lead.

By halftime, UCLA was 3-for-37 from the field. Savor that stat for a moment. That’s 3-for-37 for 8 percent by a team that was averaging 80 points per game. Kentucky was 16-for-35, including 6-for-14 from 3-point range. Aaron Harrison had 11 points and Booker 10. Towns had eight rebounds and two blocks. Andrew Harrison had six assists.

“They started with energy. Everyone was excited. We brought energy and that put us over the top,” Booker said. “We just had to keep playing against ourself. Coach stresses that. Just keep playing. You can’t look at the score. Just keep going.”

It was simple domination by a team that was already ranked No. 1 and now is even going to be more of favorite to go unbeaten this season even with a game coming up at No. 4 Louisville two days after Christmas. And if the Cats do win that game, there’s no one in the Southeastern Conference that looks capable of playing with this team that blitzed UCLA 24-0 in such dominant fashion that it even stunned the pro-UK crowd at the United Center.

Of course, maybe it should not have after the way UK beat Kansas earlier this season at Indianapolis. Kentucky has outscored Kansas and UCLA 155-82 in two neutral site games.

Calipari said it was the best his team had played all season — and Alford didn’t disagree.

“They have played a pretty good schedule and they are 12-0 and with a plus 30 (point margin) and holding teams to 48 points, that’s pretty good,” Alford said. “I thought they were tremendous and Cal has them playing at a very high level.”

Kentucky shot 50 percent (32-for-64) from the field and was 12-for-26 from 3-point range. Booker led the way with 19 points on 7-for-10 shooting while Aaron Harrison was 6-for-11 and had 15 points. Willie Cauley-Stein had his normal stat-stuffing game with eight points, five rebounds, four blocks and two steals. Andrew Harrison had eight poitns and eight assists. Tyler Ulis had six assists. Towns had 1- rebounds, four points and two blocks.

No wonder Calipari said he was enjoying this team so much that when they didn’t practice he was getting “antsy” and texting and emailing players.

“This game, the way we started, we have not always done that,” Calipari said. “I thought Andrew was unbelievable. He did stuff flying up and down the court. He could have had 10 assists in 23 mintues. I told him to quit trying to get fouled and score 10 or 12 points and get assists.

“Tyler Ulis is a different kind of point guard. He makes a difference just pressuring the ball and sprinting up the court. I had to get after him the second half to shoot the ball and score. He’s getting away from that and he can score.”

Calipari’s only complaint — again — was UK’s rebounding. The Bruins were outrebounded only 48-42 and had 20 offensive rebounds. Of course, they missed 53 shots but Calipari said he still said that would eventually haunt UK.

But not this game where UCLA was overwhelmed immediately.

Ulis, who had seven points and seven rebounds, said he had not been part of a game “at this level” where a team had its hope taken away as quickly as UCLA did with UK’s opening blitz.

“In high school, of course. Today feels like a team great performance. We came out with energy and just kept it up,” Ulis said.

No argument from UCLA point guard Bryce Alford.

“They are one of the best, if not the best, teams in the country,” the guard said. “Give credit to them. They made it hard on us. They took the confidence out of us right at the beginning and put it to us the rest of the way.”

Now it is off for four days of Christmas break before the showdown at No. 4 Louisville on Dec. 27. Maybe that is why Calipari kind of played the part of Scrooge after the game.

He noted UK was down 11-0 to Columbia to start the game. Down five at halftime to Buffalo. Down to Boston University.

“They are not machines and they are not computers. They don’t play good every time out,” Calipari said.

True, but this time they played really, really good and had UCLA beat before the game was six minutes old.