Kentucky Wins Season Opener over Nicholls 77-51

Kentucky sophomore Trent Noah suffered a lower leg injury in the first half during UK's 77-51 win over Nicholls State Tuesday night at Rupp Arena. However, Noah managed to warm up during the halftime break and sat on the bench in the second half. (Photo by Jamie H. Vaught)

By Jamie H. Vaught

KySportsStyle.com Magazine

Some leftovers from Kentucky’s 77-51 season-opening victory over Nicholls State at Rupp Arena Tuesday night.

--Nicholls only scored 51 points, lowest of any opponent in the UK coach Mark Pope era. The Wildcats are 13-0 under Pope when holding the opponent under 70 points.

--In the first half, the Wildcats struggled with their offensive performance, hitting only 32.3 percent, as they raced to a 28-15 halftime lead. However, UK shined on defense, holding the Colonels to a 3-of-25 field goal shooting for 12 percent, including 1 of 14 in three-point shooting.

“I was so proud of our guys the first-half defensive performance,” said Pope. “I thought we really, really focused the last several days on communicating defensively and trying to fill some different assignments and I thought we did very, very well in the first half.

“Our defense is going to have to carry us at some points this season. And that’s okay because they can be a real strength of ours and that’s going to be a fun piece of this game for us.

“We had some tightness on the floor on the offensive end. We are going to spend a little bit of time on the offensive end. I thought we were tentative and tight. We had a tough time catching balls in the game. Sometimes you are so excited about beginning this journey and this is our first step in this journey. We have challenges as a group offensively. We will be really good there, we just were not good in the first half.” 

Collin Chandler speaks with the media after UK's season-opening victory over Nicholls State. (Photo by Jamie H. Vaught)

--Kentucky’s offense in the second half was a different story as the Wildcats hit 61.3 percent of their shots. Overall, UK finished with a 46.8 percent shooting.

--The Wildcats had a scare when sophomore Trent Noah fell and injured his ankle in a significant pain during the opening half.  The 6-foot-5 product from Harlan County was taken to the dressing room. Later, he returned to the floor during halftime to warm up. Noah, however, didn’t see any action in the second half.

Pope shared his thoughts on Noah’s injury.  “One of the assistants came up to me (at the beginning of the second half) and said, ‘Trent is good to go.’  I was like, that’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. Trent is the toughest dude I know, and he was in a lot of pain on the floor, and he doesn’t ever show that. I walked down to the sideline and (asked athletic trainer) Brandon (Wells), ‘Is he ready to go?’  He’s like, yeah, we just tested him and he ran and said he’s feeling fine. My direct quote was like, well, Trent Noah is a liar. I think I yelled it probably louder than I should have. He’s just such a tough kid so I’m glad we were able to go through the game and not have to put him back in. We got to get him healthy because he’s an important part of this team.”

--Kentucky had four players scoring in double figures. Sophomore Collin Chandler, a 6-foot-5 guard, led the scoring attack with 15 points, including a spectacular dunk with 5:12 remaining which gave UK its largest margin of the game at 32 points (72-40).

Added Pope, “I thought Collin started the game elite defensively. I thought he made great defensive plays early in the game and, again, none of us had much of a rhythm offensively and it was nice to see him find some comfort level on the offensive end tonight, too.”

On his dunk, Chandler said, “It felt good. I’ve gotten a few so far, but it’s my first time having somebody jump with me this time. It was fun.”

--Valparaiso visits Kentucky at Rupp Arena Friday night. The 7 p.m. ET game will be shown on SEC Network+. The game is a part of the season-opening four-team event known as the BBN United Tipoff Classic with Kentucky, Valpo, Nicholls and Eastern Illinois participating. By the way, Valpo defeated Eastern Illinois 66-63 Tuesday night.

Jamie H. Vaught, a longtime sports columnist in Kentucky, is the author of seven books about UK basketball, including newly published “Unforgettable Journey with the Cats: Inside Kentucky Hoops Madness.” Now a retired college professor who taught at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College in Middlesboro, he is the editor and founder of KySportsStyle.com Magazine. You can follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @KySportsStyle or reach him via email at KySportsStyle44@gmail.com.