Kentucky Men’s Basketball Postgame Notes
No. 16/15 Louisville at 12/11 Kentucky
Rupp Arena, Lexington, Ky.
Dec. 26, 2015
Attendance: 24,412
Final Score: Kentucky 75, Louisville 73
Team Records and Series Notes
• Kentucky is 10-2 on the season. Louisville is now 11-2.
• Kentucky leads the all-time series 34-15.
• Next up for the Wildcats: Kentucky opens Southeastern Conference action by playing host to Ole Miss on Saturday, Jan. 2, at 7 p.m. The game will be televised on the SEC Network.
Series Notes Since the 1983 Renewal
• UK leads 25-12 since the series was renewed in March of 1983, including 14-4 in Rupp Arena.
• UK is 17-7 vs. UofL when the Cardinals are ranked.
• UK is 21-6 vs. UofL when the Wildcats are ranked.
• UK is 15-2 vs. UofL when both teams are ranked.
• UK is 8-1 vs. UofL under Coach John Calipari and 12-5 vs. Rick Pitino.
In the First Half
• Kentucky started with the lineup of Tyler Ulis, Charles Matthews, Jamal Murray, Alex Poythress and Marcus Lee for the first time this season.
• Louisville scored the first basket before Kentucky scored six points in a row. UK capped the 6-0 run when Ulis made a 3-pointer, extending UK’s streak of 951 consecutive games with a triple.
• After scoring a basket on their first possession, the Cardinals didn’t get another bucket for more than five minutes. UofL did make two foul shots during that stretch, but in the meantime, UK built a 13-4 lead.
• Trailing 17-12, Louisville put together a 12-2 run, including three consecutive 3-pointers, to go up 24-19. It was the visitors’ largest lead of the game.
• Tied at 30 with 2:52 remaining in the opening period, a UK personal foul and technical foul sent UofL’s Damion Lee to the free-throw line, where he made four straight to give the Cardinals a 34-30 advantage. The Wildcats replied with a 14-2 spurt and went to halftime ahead 44-36.
In the Second Half
• UK opened the second half with a layup by Lee and a layup/layup/dunk sequence by Poythress, giving the Wildcats their largest lead of the game at 52-36 at 17:54.
• After that, the Cardinals gradually cut into the UK advantage, coming within one at 65-64 with 5:34 to play.
• With expiration of the shot clock looming, Ulis gave the Cats some breathing room with a long 3-pointer with 4:57 left.
• Again with the shot clocking expiring, with 2:47 remaining, Dominique Hawkins made his third 3-pointer of the game to improve the edge to 73-68. Hawkins hit two foul shots with 1:57 to go to keep the lead at 75-70, UK’s last score of the contest.
• Louisville got a layup-and-one from Trey Lewis with 1:39 to go which proved to be the game’s final points. Louisville got two more chances but a turnover and missed three at the buzzer preserved the Wildcat win.
Team Notes
• With 2,187 all-time wins, Kentucky is the nation’s leader in that category.
• UK extended its streak of 28 straight wins in Rupp Arena.
• Kentucky hit 11 3-pointers today, a season high for the Wildcats.
• Louisville shot 42.9 percent from the field. UK has held the last 53 home opponents, and the last 81 non-conference home opponents, under 50 percent from the field.
Notes on Coach John Calipari
• Coach John Calipari has a 645-180 (.782) all-time record, including a 200-40 (.833) mark at Kentucky.
• Calipari is 110-4 (.965) in Rupp Arena, including 62-1 (.984) against non-conference opponents.
• UK is 29-6 in bounce-back games (after losses) under Calipari.
• Calipari is the fifth coach to win 200 games at Kentucky, joining Adolph Rupp (876), Joe B. Hall (297), Orlando “Tubby” Smith (263) and Rick Pitino (219).
• Kentucky is the first school with five coaches to win at least 200 games. Four other schools have four coaches who have won at least 200 – Alabama, Kansas, Maryland and Villanova.
• Calipari has 200 wins at two schools, Kentucky and Memphis. He is the 11th head coach in men’s Division I history to accomplish that feat. The others are Jim Calhoun, Hugh Durham, Lou Henson, Neil McCarthy, Ralph Miller, Johnny Orr, Rick Pitino, Norm Sloan, Eddie Sutton and Roy Williams.
• Calipari is the only coach in Division I history with at least 189 wins at three different schools, including his time at UMass.
• Calipari is the second-fastest coach in Division I history to reach 200 wins at a school, hitting the mark in his 240th game at Kentucky. Only Clair Bee, who earned 200 wins in his first 231 games at LIU-Brooklyn from 1931-41, did it faster.
Player Notes
• Senior Alex Poythress contributed 14 points, six boards and had a season-high three blocked shots.
• Freshman Jamal Murray had 12 points, his 10th consecutive double-figure game.
• He has made at least one 3-point shot in every game this season, the first player in program history to make a triple in each of his first 12 games.
• Junior Dominique Hawkins had a career-high 13 points.
• He had eight points in the first half, already surpassing his previous career best of seven.
• He made 3 of 4 on 3-point shots, the first time he had made more than one triple as a Wildcat.
• Hawkins is the first Kentucky native to score in double figures for the Wildcats against Louisville since Darius Miller did so in the 2012 Final Four.
• Junior Marcus Lee had eight points and led the Wildcats with seven rebounds. After making 4 of 5 field goals today, Lee has made 26 of 34 (.765) shots in the last six games.
• Sophomore Tyler Ulis paced the Wildcats with 21 points, tying his career high set earlier this season against Wright State.
• He also tied a career high by making four 3-point shots, accomplished twice previously.
• Ulis had a game-high eight assists, just one shy of his career best.
• He was named the game’s Most Valuable Player by the Bluegrass Sports Commission. He is the first back-to-back winner since the award was instituted in Dec. 2010. In two games vs. Louisville, he has totaled 35 points, 10 assists, one turnover (65 minutes) and made 6 of 9 on 3-pointers.
• Freshman Isaiah Briscoe injured an ankle during pregame warmups. Briscoe, who had started the previous nine games, was replaced by fellow freshman Charles Matthews, who made his third start of the season.
