No. 5 Kentucky, after splitting games on a tough two-game trip last week, returns home to face Colgate on Wednesday in Lexington, Ky.
The Wildcats (8-1) took their first loss under new coach Mark Pope at Clemson on Dec. 3, then pulled out a come-from-behind overtime victory over Gonzaga on Saturday in Seattle.
In the 90-89 triumph over the Bulldogs, Kentucky tied the school record for the largest halftime deficit overcome en route to a win. The Wildcats trailed at intermission 50-34 but rallied to tie the game in the final minute before jumping to a seven-point overtime lead and then hanging on for their second top-10 win of the season.
Kentucky previously beat then-No. 6 Duke 77-72 on Nov. 12 in Atlanta.
On Saturday, the Wildcats got a team-high 19 points from Wake Forest transfer Andrew Carr. Four other Kentucky players reached double digits, including Jaxson Robinson, who not only scored 18 points but ended up having to play point guard down the game’s final stretch.
Kentucky’s starter at that position, Lamont Butler, missed the entire game with a minor ankle injury sustained against Clemson. Point guard Kerr Kriisa left the game in the middle of the second half against Gonzaga with a broken foot that will require surgical repair.
On Monday, Pope said of Butler, “It’s day-to-day right now, we’ll see. I’m hoping to see him on the court some (Tuesday), we’ll kind of see how that goes. He got some work done today away from the team. He was at practice kind of — his voice was there, but wasn’t doing anything active with us. We’re going to see how he responds (Tuesday) morning.”
Kentucky’s transfer-heavy squad is leading the nation in scoring, at 92.6 points per game. The Wildcats are averaging a plus-7.7 rebounding margin over opponents but have been tested on the backboard in their top recent road games.
“We’re learning,” Pope said. “The process we’re in right now is we’re going to grow, we’re going to keep getting better and better and better. We had a couple really productive days in practice where we’re starting to understand how to be us against the best defenses in the country.”
The Wildcats’ next foe, Colgate, is offensively challenged.
The Raiders (2-8) are averaging just 67.1 points per game, around the 10th percentile mark of Division I offenses. Colgate is shooting only 43.7 percent as a team and is being outrebounded by 4.5 boards per game on average, also one of the worst marks in the nation.
Colgate has been without 6-foot-11 senior Jeff Woodward for the past three weeks, which leaves the Raiders with only one player seeing significant minutes who is taller than 6-foot-6.
The Raiders come to Rupp Arena off a 78-75 loss at Northeastern on Sunday. While five Raiders reached double-figure scoring totals, led by Brady Cummings with 15 points, Colgate was outrebounded 37-21. The Raiders did manage a season-high 14 steals in the contest.
Coach Matt Langel, in his 14th season at Colgate, said after the defeat, “Winning on the road is extremely hard to do in college basketball. Our schedule has been challenging with the circumstances we’ve faced. Our guys stepped up and fought hard together to make some plays, but … ultimately we came up short.”
Langel has taken Colgate to the NCAA Tournament in each of the past four seasons and the Raiders have posted a 60-6 Patriot League record during that span.
