By Keith Taylor
Kentucky Today
Kentucky coach Mark Pope wants his team to keep growing and learning and it never stops.
“Hopefully, our confidence is growing all the time,” Pope said. “I think mostly what (the win over Duke) gives us is like we’re just hungry to grow.”
The growth has been evident within the program after last week’s 77-72 signature win over Duke. As a result of the upset win, the Wildcats (3–0) made a big leap in the Associated Press Top 25 poll on Monday, climbing nine spots from 19th to No. 9. The Blue Devils dropped six spots down to 12th in the poll.
“I feel like it’s always good vibes around the whole team,” 6-foot-11 sophomore Brandon Garrison said. “But even better vibes since we pulled off the win versus Duke. I feel like it would give any team confidence. Third game in, beating a decent opponent like Duke, I feel like that will help our confidence for the rest of the season.”
Like Garrison, Pope is eager to see his team’s progression from start to finish and added it’s all about humility and curiosity.
Pope knows his team has “limited time” and “it’s just a race to see how fast we can grow.
“I think the biggest thing is to just go play again, find out who we are and how we can get better and what we can do better and how (much) we can grow,” he said. “It’s a race, with a team that’s constructed the way this team had to be — where everyone is new — is just a race from our first game on Nov. 4 to hopefully the Final Four.”
Garrison played a big role off the bench in the second half of Kentucky’s win over Duke and finished with eight points, including four during a crucial stretch in the second half.
“It meant a lot because I knew my team needed something from me,” Garrison said. “I started off the game slow, and the coaches were telling me to pick it up, and I picked it up right there. I’m an energy dude, and I feel like (when) my energy is up and I’m running the court, blocking shots that my team feeds off that.”
Coming off a five-point win over the Blue Devils, Kentucky will take on Lipscomb Tuesday night, the first of four straight home games to close out November.
Garrison said the Wildcats can’t afford to “get too big-headed and come in like we just won the national championship.
“We’ve got to take every game like it’s a big game,” Garrison said. “We’ve put (the Duke) game passed us now, and we’re looking at Lipscomb — that’s our next big game.”
The Bison are 2-3 on the season, with losses to Belmont, Western Kentucky and Arkansas.
“(We) can’t go in there and think we’re going to walk over them because they’re going to put up a fight,” Garrison said.
Top player
Kentucky forward Andrew Carr was named Southeastern Conference Player of the Week on Monday. Carr had 17 points, three assists and added a blocked shot in the win over Duke.
“He’s really wildly efficient at making shots,” Pope said. “He makes shots. He stacks decisions. It’s something we saw in film from him last year at Wake Forest where he is turning the ball and someone jumps in the passing lane and he can actually stack a decision where he reads it correctly, gets downhill, gets to two feet, makes another ball fake, and then finally completes a pass or play.
“There’s not that many guys his size with his ability to make shots and finish shots that can stack decisions like him.”
Gametracker: Lipscomb at Kentucky, 7 p.m., Tuesday. TV/Radio: SEC Network+, ESPN+, UK Radio Network.