There was plenty on the line on Saturday night in Fayetteville. The identical records of John Calipari and Mark Pope since the former left Kentucky for Arkansas were everywhere you looked on ESPN and social media. The Hogs were ascending with a star point guard. The Cats were down after a no show on Tuesday against Vanderbilt. UK needed to get off the mat to prevent Pope from starting his Kentucky tenure 0-2 against Cal.
That’s exactly what the Wildcats did in a 85-77 victory in Bud Walton Arena on Saturday night. Kentucky had to get the bad tase out of their mouth after a brutal performance in Nashville.
“It was definitely personal. But more of the fact that the last time we played…we didn’t really do a good job of representing Kentucky. We had to sit with that for a couple of days,” Otega Oweh told ESPN’s Dave Pasch and Fran Fraschilla in a postgame interview. “We was just eager to get back out there and it just so happened that we were playing Arkansas and the former coach at Kentucky. But it was definitely personal for us just to come out here and clean it up and set a tone.”
Was revenge for last year’s home loss to Arkansas on Oweh and the rest of Kentucky’s mind? Maybe. But it’s clear that the performance on Tuesday night in a 80-55 loss to Vanderbilt did not sit well. The Cats needed to bounce-back and show some resiliency. That’s exactly what Pope’s team did in the road win. UK got off to a fast start, built an early lead, and played through some adversity in the second half before securing control of the game in crunch time. This is a season that has been filled with ups and down, but UK has consistently shown fight. Now they just need to find some more consistency.
“It was kind of tough. The last time we played, we just had a bad outing. That’s not who we are. The last 72 (hours) was definitely tough, but we just had to learn from it, and that’s why we came out and was so aggressive. The intensity was up from start to finish,” Oweh explained. “So we’re still working every day of not having to lose by 30 to up our intensity. We gotta make that an every day thing.”
A new identity could be formed now. Otega Oweh and his Kentucky teammates made a statement in a Quad 1A road win to close out January. This one was personal. Can UK continue the determined play against Oklahoma and Tennessee at home? The Cats keep responding to adversity but more consistency could lead to less adversity.
The Wildcats took care of business against the Hogs. Now they will look to build off the big win and potentially season-swinging moment.