Kentucky Upset by Vanderbilt Commodores on Senior Night 68-66

By: LONNY DEMAREE

CJ Fredrick had a rough start to this senior night going 0-3 before giving way to Chris Livingston. Fredrick shot 2-7. iIn the first half he rebounded by scoring on a three pointer and a two pointer. The Wildcats fell behind at the halfway mark of the game 34-30. The Commodores lost their seen-footer Liam Robbins early in the game. It appeared to bae a knee injury.

The game does not register as a very good game when the shots are not falling.

Thank goodness for the cleanup man (Oscar Tshiebwe) on UK constant misses. The Wildcats were just not shooting the ball well.
UK 56 Vandy 59 shooting 32.2 for the game. In addition to that they shot 3-19 from the tree point range.
At the 1:43 mark Vandy and UK are tied 64 apiece. At the timeout Vandy had the ball coming out. They missed and now UK at a timeout 1:21 coming out. The Wildcats are not in a good spot for a double bye in the SEC tournament. They now are in the position for the 8 or 9 seed in the NCAA tournament.

The Commodores take the lead 02.6 remaining in the game and Kentucky with the ball coming out. The Kentucky crowd is stunned , needless to say. Nothing worked out for the Cats in the closing seconds.

The Commodores have had some good wins this season so Kentucky can claim a ‘Moral Loss…..Booooooooo.’
Something very unfortunate happened right before halftime that I missed because I was in the process of beating the crowd at the concession line. I was informed by and elderly man and his wife of Calipari going ballistic on Jacob Toppin while running out on the floor. They said it was a very bad look!

THE TOPPIN Mia Coppa

What was it about the latter part of the first half? He said – “In life there are certain things you can control and that’s my emotions and your attitude in how you approach certain situations. I didn’t handle the situation well. I made some mistakes that sparked their run before the half. I told the coach to take me out. As a leader going forward, I need to control my emotions. I’m just blessed to have been in this situation.