#2 is much more than a sharpshooter.
After losing a frustrating game on the road against Vanderbilt and down several key players, there weren’t many folks giving the Kentucky Wildcats a shot at beating the 8th-ranked Tennessee Vols in Knoxville on Tuesday night.
In fact, the spread pegged Kentucky as double-digit underdogs.
But miraculously, without Lamont Butler and receiving just two minutes of play from Andrew Carr, Kentucky still found a way to beat Tennessee inside Thompson Bowling Arena.
So, what changed?
On Mark Pope’s weekly radio show, the Big Blue Nation was treated to a behind-the-scenes look at exactly what transpired after the Cats were upset by Vandy.
Pope went into detail praising Jaxson Robinson who inserted himself in a leadership role and clearly inspired his teammates.
“Jaxson’s story has got so many beginnings and endings, but the beginning of this particular story was not the first 10 minutes at Tennessee where he was so incredible. It was 72 hours earlier. At the end of a really disappointing loss at Vanderbilt…when we finish games, we’ll leave the court, and the team will have a few minutes together while we meet as a staff.
“By the time we got into the locker room, Jaxson Robinson was still going and going, talking about what this team was supposed to be and what our mission was, how we fit together, how we had to count on each other, what the expectation in terms of our standard as a team was. It wasn’t berating his teammates. It was just reaffirming the standard we’re trying to hold ourselves to. It was done really forcefully and positively and seriously.
“If you could tell a mini-story about Jaxson Robinson’s performance last night, it started three nights earlier in a really sad locker room,” Pope said Wednesday evening.
It’s refreshing to hear how Robinson was able to transform a potentially catastrophic situation into something positive for himself and his teammates.
Clearly, whatever he said, it worked.
Not only did Kentucky beat the Volunteers as double-digit underdogs, they were in control for nearly the entire game, leading 35:20 of a possible 40 minutes.
It’s a good feeling to know that this team made up of veterans can find a way to redirect when needed.
Is it March yet?