Kentucky-Kansas State Postgame Notes

March 22, 2014

Recap | Box Score | Photo Gallery

Kentucky improves to 25-10 overall, while Kansas State concludes the year with a 20-13 record.
Kentucky now leads the series 9-0 including 2-0 in the NCAA Tournament.
The Wildcats lead the nation with a 112-46 all-time record in the NCAA Tournament.
UK is 43-10 in tournament openers.
The Wildcats are 6-1 in the NCAA Tournament when the game is played in St. Louis.
Kentucky has won 21 of its last 22 second round (previously first round) games.
UK is 14-2 in NCAA Tournament games under John Calipari.
Kentucky advances to play No. 1 seed Wichita State on Sunday, March 23. The game is set to air live on CBS at 2:45 p.m. ET.

Kentucky’s starting lineup consisted of five freshmen in Aaron Harrison, Andrew Harrison, Dakari Johnson, Julius Randle and James Young. That lineup improves to 9-4 on the season.
Alex Poythress and Willie Cauley-Stein were the first subs off the bench for UK. Poythress’ name has been called first a team-high 20 times and Cauley-Stein has been first on 15 occasions.
Poythress hit a 3-pointer at the 13:35 mark of the first half to extend UK’s 3-point streak to 895 consecutive games. Kentucky entered the game tied with Vanderbilt for the nation’s second-longest streak. By extending the streak, UK officially takes over the second-longest streak in the country trailing only UNLV.
John Calipari coached teams are 125-38 in the months of March and April.
Calipari is 39-13 all-time as a coach in the NCAA Tournament.
Prior to today’s game, only seniors Jon Hood and Jarrod Polson and junior Brian Long had logged a minute in NCAA Tournament action. The trio had combined for 10 total minutes.

Andrew Harrison made one of two free throws prior to the jump ball after Kansas State was assessed a technical foul for dunking in warm-ups.
A 14-2 run over a 5:17 time frame which was highlighted by a pair of 3-pointers from Aaron Harrison gave UK a 19-10 lead with 8:21 remaining in the half.
A 6-0 run by Kansas State trimmed UK’s 12-point advantage to just six at 29-23 with under a minute to play in the half.
That score held into the break. The Wildcats improve to 21-2 when leading at halftime this season.

Kansas State cut Kentucky’s advantage to two at 35-33 into the second timeout of the second half with 14:54 remaining.
A 7-0 spurt, which included a technical foul being assessed to Kansas State’s Shane Southwell, allowed Kentucky to push the lead back to nine at 42-33 with 12:32 remaining.

Willie Cauley-Stein finished with two points and eight rebounds. He also added four blocks and four steals.
- Registered four or more blocks in three of his last four games.
- Passed Nerlens Noel (105) for second place on the single-season blocks list at Kentucky.
- Had four steals marking the third time this season and the sixth time in his career he has had at least three swipes in a single outing.
Aaron Harrison scored 18 points and sunk a pair of 3-pointers.
- Notched his 27th double-figure scoring effort of the year and has reached double-digits in all four of UK’s postseason outings this season.
- Moved into fifth place on UK’s freshman single-season 3-point list pushing past Keith Bogans and tying Eric Bledsoe with 49 on the year.
Andrew Harrison capped the game with seven points, five rebounds and a team-best five assists.
- Logged four or more assists in five of his last seven games.
Julius Randle tallied a double-double with team-highs in points (19) and rebounds (15).
- Moved into third on UK’s single-season double-double list and set the freshman record by himself with the 21st double-double of the year. He is now tied with Jim Andrews on the list.
- Reached double-figure scoring for the 30th time this season and the 12th time in the last 14 games.
- Advanced to 10th on the single-season list for rebounds moving past Dan Issel (369).
- Pushed past Alex Groza (180) for single-season free throws into fifth place.

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