By Ashley Scoby
Special to NKyTribune
Willie Cauley-Stein, dressed in all black clothes and a wide-brimmed black hat after Kentucky beat South Carolina 77-43 Saturday, called himself a vigilante.
“You’re not gonna wear white in the dark when you’re sneaking around,” he joked. “That’s how I’m gonna get you.”
Maybe if Cauley-Stein were in a superhero movie, that’s how he would get you. But on the basketball court? He’s a bit more straightforward. The 7-footer led Kentucky in scoring Saturday with 14 points, six of those from rim-rattling dunks. And his team put together a confidence-rattling bludgeoning of the 12-12 Gamecocks to tie the best start (25-0) in Kentucky basketball history.
“We can do something bigger,” Cauley-Stein said. “We have the chance to do something way bigger than just tying it.”
If the Wildcats continue to play like they did against South Carolina, those accomplishments will keep rolling. Within eight minutes, Kentucky’s latest foray into SEC competition was out of hand.
By the 11:52 mark of the first half, UK had an 18-3 lead. South Carolina had missed nine of its first 10 shots. Meanwhile, Kentucky was unleashing the kind of offensive togetherness that fans had been hoping for since the beginning of conference play.
Karl-Anthony Towns scored the Wildcats’ first six points off a dunk, two free throws and a running hook shot that displayed how difficult it is to stop an offensively-developed Towns. Andrew Harrison drove to the basket with a purpose and slid past defenders to create a layup off the dribble. Then he threw a dart of an outlet pass during a fast break to Cauley-Stein, who snagged it for a one-handed slam.
Dakari Johnson pulled down an offensive rebound – he led all rebounders with a career-high 13 – and muscled up a putback. Aaron Harrison and Devin Booker each nailed jumpers.
If that seems like a long chunk of offensive success – combined with defensive focus that allowed only one made field goal from the Gamecocks – then South Carolina was certainly feeling the same way.
“We walked in there, and as soon as we got punched we went down,” said South Carolina head coach Frank Martin. “We never fought back.”
After Demetrius Henry’s three-pointer to end Kentucky’s game-opening 18-3 run, the Gamecocks never got closer than 12 points. The lead was 27 by the 1:48 mark of the first half when Cauley-Stein swished a jumper – a new addition to his offensive arsenal.
And as Kentucky further embarrassed South Carolina in the second half (the lead at one point was 39), you got the feeling that if the Wildcats had wanted to jump up and swing on the Rupp Arena rafters, they would have.
“South Carolina is a type of team – they’re gonna drive you to death,” Cauley-Stein said. “If they can’t get to the lane on you, they’re gonna struggle because you can’t shoot over us. We’re too big. Well, you can’t get in the lane – we’re too big. I don’t know what you can do.”
The Gamecocks didn’t know either. Both “how to stop Kentucky” and “how to score against Kentucky” were questions that went unanswered on Saturday. South Carolina shot 13-of-55 for 23.6 percent, becoming the 11th team this year that Kentucky’s held to less than 30-percent field goal shooting.
With every move South Carolina made to stem the bleeding, the Wildcats made 10 more to cut in deeper. The Gamecocks had lessened the margin to 27 points with 7:22 remaining, which was at least better than the 33 it had been four minutes earlier.
But that’s where the swinging-from-the-rafters-if-we-feel-like-it mentality of Kentucky asserted its dominance again.
With 6:30 to play, Andrew Harrison floated a ball up towards the ceiling for Cauley-Stein to catch and slam for a 64-33 lead that effortlessly ballooned into the 77-43 final score. If Kentucky wants to lob and dunk the ball, there’s not much teams can do to stop that. With Cauley-Stein’s new mindset of “go score on a dude,” that play is near unstoppable.
“I just feel like the whole criticism (of me) is I’m soft or something like that,” he said. “So I’m just gonna start dunking on people.”
And no black hat can disguise that.
Ashley Scoby is a senior journalism major at the University of Kentucky and a KyForward sports writer. She has reported on the Wildcats for wildcathoops.com, vaughtsviews.com andkysportsreport.com as well as for newspapers in Danville and Glasgow. She will begin a summer internship with Sports Illustrated magazine in New York this June.