Surprisingly, Texas A&M was no match for Kentucky.
The sixth-ranked Wildcats rolled to a 100-58 victory over the Aggies Tuesday, a final margin that was somewhat of a surprise considering the two Southeastern Conference foes split a pair of games last season, both of which went down to the wire and were decided in overtime.
Even Kentucky coach John Calipari was taken aback by the final margin and told Texas A&M coach Billy Kennedy during the postgame handshake “that’s about as well as we can play.”
“Other games, we had played well for 20 minutes, and then 10 minutes we look looked like an AAU team,” Today we were grinding on defense, didn’t take crazy chances. So it was pretty good for us.”
Kennedy wasn’t surprised by the beatdown his team took that dropped his Aggies to 0-2 in the conference.
“Nothing really surprised me,” he said. “I would like to tell you – I thought we would play much better. There was no surprise. Kentucky – they are who they are. You get what you get. Coach Cal knows what he has and they’re coming at you full speed.”
BOXSCORE: Kentucky 100, Texas A&M 58
For Calipari, it’s the kind of performance the Kentucky coach has been yearning for all year and it came nearly two weeks following an “undisciplined” showing in a 73-70 loss at Louisville. Since the three-point setback to the Cardinals, the sixth-ranked Wildcats (12-2) have won two straight to open the conference portion of the schedule.
Kentucky used a big first half to topple Ole Miss and didn’t skip a beat against the Aggies.
“They just hit us on a good night,” Calipari said. “That’s as good as we’ll play. We shot the three, we made free throws. I mean, that’s as good as we go.”
That greatness began on the defensive end as Kentucky forced 23 turnovers, including 10 steals. The Wildcats scored 35 points off those miscues and used a 15-0 run in the first half to put the game out of reach. During the decisive spree, Kentucky forced six straight turnovers and converted on each of those mistakes.
From the opening tip, Kentucky’s defense was just too much for Texas A&M.
“Our forte (was) putting pressure on the ball,” Calipari said, noting the Aggies were without their top two guards. “His guards are out (and) our guards put pressure on the ball and that’s what you see.”
Kentucky guard De’Aaron Fox said the first five minutes “was extremely fun” and helped set the tone on both ends of the court.
“We came out and talked about pressuring the ball so that is what we did,” he said. “They turned the ball over (23) times and I think that’s a season high this year. It’s just something that we have been putting an emphasis on. We came out, pressured the ball and did what we were supposed to do. We got steals, got dunks and layups. Its always fun, especially against a team like that.”
The defensive improvement could be attributed to “Camp Cal” but sophomore guard Isaiah Briscoe said the team is starting to become more vocal, a big reason the Wildcats were able to frustrate the Aggies on defense.
“All week in practice, we’ve been focusing on extra talking on defense — just making one another feel comfortable because we need to trust,” he said. “If this team’s going to go far, we’re going to have to trust one another. So I think talking makes some people feel more comfortable on defense. Once our defense gets to the next level, we’ll be fine.”
Even though Kentucky is known as one of the top scoring teams in the nation and has reached the century mark five times, the defensive component has taken more time to develop. As evidenced on Tuesday, the defense is starting to come around, which makes Kentucky an even more dangerous threat on both ends of the floor.
“(That’s) scary — us doing that and getting out on the break on offense, it just makes us get out on the break faster, so I think we should start doing that way more,” Kentucky guard Malik Monk said. “I think we’re going to be locked in to do that.”
Although far from perfect, the Wildcats are becoming the team Calipari envisioned at the beginning of the season.
“This is starting to look like a team I coach,” Calipari said. “They shot 45 percent, but again, this was a game where everything was tough for them. I thought we did a good job trapping in the post. I thought we did some good stuff today.”
Keith Taylor is a senior sports writer for KyForward, where he primarily covers University of Kentucky sports. Reach him at keith.taylor@kyforward.com or @keithtaylor21 on Twitter