Liam Robbins’ Return Transformative for Vandy, Gives Kentucky Bigger, Tougher Challenge
Vandy #Vandy
Kentucky basketball is looking to celebrate its biggest Senior Night of the John Calipari era with a win on Wednesday night, hosting the Vanderbilt Commodores.
Somehow, the Wildcats have managed to rid themselves of the dastardly NCAA Tournament bubble and are no longer worried about actually making the Big Dance. That relieves a great amount of stress and will allow for a bit more celebration of the six seniors that are participating in festivities on Wednesday night.
There’s still a basketball game to be played, however. This Vandy team isn’t going dancing later this month, but it has taken some major strides since UK last played it, winning 69-53 in Nashville.
Coach Jerry Stackhouse’s Commodores went on to lose a pair of tough road games after the UK defeat, against the top two seeds in the NCAA Tournament, Alabama and Texas A&M. Since then, though, good things have happened for the Dores.
After a win over Ole Miss, heroics took place inside Memorial Gymnasium, as Tyrin Lawrence splashed a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from the corner to take down Tennessee. That win led into a pair of road wins, over Florida and South Carolina, then another home victory, slaying the Auburn Tigers in a testy affair.
A loss to LSU soured the mojo some, but Vandy since completed its season-sweep of the Gators, leading it to Rupp Arena with a 16-13 (9-7 SEC) record and much higher hopes than when the teams first squared off on Jan. 24.
The reason for that is the return of one man — senior forward Liam Robbins.
Averaging 15.5 points and 7.1 rebounds a game, the seven-footer is the motor for Vandy. He didn’t play when the Cats came to Memorial in January, as he was still recovering from an ankle sprain.
Looking back, that calls for a wipe of the brow if you’re UK coach John Calipari. Since Robbins’ return, the Dores are 6-2, while he’s throwing down 20.3 PPG, 9.75 RPG and a whopping 4.0 blocks-per-game.
Calipari is often quick to hand out compliments to anyone who may be opposing his team on the court, but what he said about Robbins may stand true, saying he’s “playing probably better than anybody in the league right now.” He even tossed in one for Vanderbilt, saying it was “playing as well as anybody in our league,” on Monday night.
Vandy’s recent win over Florida snapped a four-game streak for Robbins of scoring 20 points or more. In the loss to LSU, he was a block away from recording a triple-double. A…block.
Robbins’ style is the kind that can present a bulk of problems for Kentucky center Oscar Tshiebwe. The two have squared off before, most recently in last season’s SEC Tournament, but this is a much-improved version of the Vandy big man.
“He’s been good,” Tshiebwe said of Robbins on Tuesday. “You just got to make sure you do your job. He can shoot, he can do a lot of things.”
Without Robbins on the floor in Nashville, both Tshiebwe and senior forward Jacob Toppin managed double-doubles, taking care of a Vandy frontcourt that really had just a pair of bigs.
It was rewarded with a career-high 14 points from freshman Malik Dia, but that was far from enough to overcome what finished as a comfortable 69-53 win for the Cats.
Calipari played eight in that game, one of whom was point guard Sahvir Wheeler, who isn’t expected to suit up for the seventh game in a row, as he continues to deal with an ankle injury of his own.
Wheeler broke out in his new bench role against Vandy, scoring four points and adding a game-high five assists in the victory. UK has adjusted well without the senior PG, as freshman Cason Wallace has managed almost all of the minutes, while Adou Thiero comes in to for mini spurts as well.
The Cats will be likely be shorthanded yet again, while there will be a new and tall challenge awaiting Tshiebwe and the UK forwards on Wednesday night in the form of Robbins.
Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. EST. The game will air on the SEC Network.
More on Kentucky’s NCAA Tournament résumé HERE.
More on the win over Auburn HERE.
More on Oscar Tshiebwe’s improved defense HERE.
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