What has changed for UK since that early-season loss to UCLA? Everything
Kentucky and UCLA is Friday's late game in Memphis. It's must-see T.V.
Much will be made of what happened when the Bruins won in Rupp Arena earlier this season, but Kentucky is a very different team since that 97-92 loss to UCLA.
Make no mistake about it: Beating the Bruins will be a tall order. UCLA is no ordinary three-seed, just as 30-win Wichita State was no ordinary double-digit seed. The Bruins cruised in the Round of 32 against a stout Cincinnati defense, turning it over just three times and coasting to a cool 79 points (and it felt like a lot more).
Kentucky had no answers for UCLA's offense in that early-season loss, but there are reasons to believe that Round Two of this blue-blooded heavyweight fight will be very different than the first meeting.
That doesn't mean Kentucky will win. It just means the game looks very different.
Kentucky's winning a different way
Kentucky was ranked No. 1 when UCLA won in Rupp on December 3rd, and that was largely due to an offense that was averaging close to 100 points per game.
The Cats were thought of as a 'hot' team when they took on UCLA earlier this year, but they're now officially the hottest team in Division I basketball. Kentucky has won 13 consecutive games dating back to regular season play in the SEC.
But they're winning a very different way than they were earlier in the season, when they padded their stats with offensive outbursts and a furious pace of play.
During Kentucky's 13-game win streak the Cats have averaged a much more modest 76.3 points per game. That doesn't seem to be a positive, but consider this: Kentucky's opponents are scoring just 66.7 points per game during that stretch.
That means the margin of victory hasn't been overwhelming, but it means Kentucky's defense has tightened up. It also means Kentucky has become a mentally tougher team down the stretch in the second half of games.
Defensively the improvement is easy to track. None of Kentucky's last 12 opponents have shot 40-percent from three-point range against the Cats. UCLA shot 44-percent from deep in that game in Rupp earlier in the year, knocking down 10 treys.
A better Bam
Bam Adebayo has been Kentucky's most consistent performer all season long. He put up numbers almost right from the start, and even going into that early-season game against UCLA he was already regarded as a big man to be reckoned with.
But over the past couple of months Kentucky's freshman big man has taken his game to another level.
Adebayo has posted five double-doubles in Kentucky's 13-game winning streak. He had just three games with double-digit rebounds in all of the Cats' games before that.
Adebayo has become more involved in Kentucky's offense and players like Malik Monk, De'Aaron Fox and Derek Willis have done a better job of getting him the ball in scoring position, whether on entry passes when he's on the low block or on lobs as they break the defense down.
But Adebayo's defense has also improved dramatically as well. That will be important because it was T.J. Leaf, not Lonzo Ball, who really caused the most problems for Kentucky in that early season game (17 points, 13 rebounds).
Perhaps the biggest area of improvement for Adebayo has been his ability to stay on the court. He hasn't been nearly as foul-prone as he was earlier in the year, and that's a very good sign for a big man who has to play a lot of minutes, and very good minutes, against Leaf and those Bruins.
A more modest Monk
For good or for bad, and there's probably some of both here, Malik Monk's numbers haven't been nearly as eye-popping for Kentucky lately as they were earlier in the year. Going into that UCLA game Monk had already scored 23 against Michigan State, Cleveland State and Arizona State and 26 against UT-Martin. He would go on to score 47 against North Carolina and 34 against Ole Miss shortly after the loss to UCLA.
Monk scored 24 points in that loss to the Bruins.
He still won the SEC's regular season scoring title, but Monk hasn't scored more than 20 points in any of Kentucky's last six games.
The good news is that has coincided with increased contributions from Kentucky's seniors, especially Dominique Hawkins and Derek Willis. Monk's scoring dip has also come at the same time as Kentucky's deflated points per game and points allowed (i.e. a different way of winning). Most importantly, perhaps, Fox has rebounded from a late-season slump to average around 20 points per game over Kentucky's last six.
UK doesn't look like a team that needs Monk to score 30 points to have a chance to beat UCLA. If he scored an efficient 30 that would certainly help, and at some point it seems that he's just due for a big game (or a big half, as he's prone to have). But Kentucky is winning even with a more modest Monk.
Seniors stepping up
Kentucky wasn't getting much from its seniors when they played UCLA earlier in the year.
Mychal Mulder didn't even play against the Bruins. He's gotten a lot of minutes more recently. He was part of an early-game lineup against Wichita State that gave UK a lead after a quick deficit.
Hawkins' production has skyrocketed to better match his contributions that haven't always showed up on the stat sheet. He scored 14 points against Arkansas in the SEC tournament championship game and is averaging seven points per game through two NCAA tournament contests. His baskets against the Shockers early helped to jolt a UK team that struggled for offense in the first half.
Willis did score 11 points against the Bruins in that first meeting, and while he hasn't scored more than 11 points in any of the Cats' last 10 games, the overall quality of his play has certainly improved.
