Kentucky Wildcats Basketball: Game Day Notes
• UK enters its 112th season of basketball and remains the national leader in total wins with 2,141.
• The Wildcats are 92-19 all-time in season openers and a perfect 6-0 under the direction of John Calipari.
• Kentucky enters the season ranked No. 1 in the AP and Coaches’ polls for the second consecutive sea- son. Prior to last season, the Wildcats last started at No. 1 for the 1995-96 season — finishing at No. 1 in that season as well.
• UK defeated Grand Canyon 85-45 on Friday night, the program’s second largest margin of victory in a season opener in the last 20 seasons. The 2011-12 national championship team began its season with a 50-point victory vs. Marist.
• The Wildcats have won 19 of their last 21 contests as the Associated Press top-ranked team.
• Andrew Harrison led the Wildcats on Friday with 16 points and three assiss. Trey Lyles added 14 points and Dakari Johnson notched his first career double-double with 10 points and a career-high 13 rebounds.
• Kenucky allowed just six field goals, blocked seven shots and forced 13 turnovers in the first half of Fri- day’s victory. Grand Canyon’s 16 first-half points were the fewest UK had surrendered in a first half since the Cats yielded just 14 to Samford on Dec. 4, 2012.
• UK was selected by the media to win its 46th Southeastern Conference championship, while sophomore Aaron Harrison was the preseason pick for player of the year by the media. UK was a unanimous selection to win the SEC title. It’s the first unanimous selection since 1995-96, which was also a Kentucky team.
The Wildcats’ platoon system continued to shine:
• No player logged more than 24 minutes
• Four players reached double-figure scoring
• UK shot 48.6 percent from the field, including 52.8 percent in the second half
• In the first half vs. the Antelopes, UK blocked seven shots, forced 13 turnovers and surrendered just six field goals
• Grand Canyon’s 16 first-half points were the fewest UK had surrendered in a first half since the Cats yielded just 14 to Samford on Dec. 4, 2012 • The nation’s tallest team owned the glass with a 51-21 edge, including 24 offensive rebounds that led to 29 second-chance points
• Andrew Harrison started the game with seven straight points and finished with a team-high 16
• Trey Lyles scored 14 in his first career game
• Dakari Johnson notched his first career double-double with 10 points and a career-high 13 rebounds
Kentucky in Season Openers
• Kentucky has totaled a 92-19 all-time record during season lid-lifters.
• UK is a perfect 6-0 under the direction of John Cali- pari in such contests.
• The Wildcats last opened at home with an 89-57 victory over UNC Asheville last season.
Five Wildcats on Coaches’ Preseason Teams
• UK led the league with five players selected to the SEC Coaches’ preseason teams.
• Aaron and Andrew Harrison were named to the first team ballot.
• Willie Cauley-Stein, Alex Poythress and Karl-Anthony Towns were second-team picks.
• Towns was the only freshman in the league se- lected to either team.
Duo on Lute Olson Award Watch List
• Junior Willie Cauley-Stein and sophomore Aaron Harrison were named to the Lute Olson Award Watch List on Wednesday.
• The Lute Olson Award is presented annually to the nation’s top Division I player who has played at least two seasons with his respective team.
• Incoming freshmen and transfers are not eligible for the Player of the Year award.
• The 2015 recipient will be announced at the Col- legeInsider.com Awards Banquet on April 3 in India- napolis, site of the 2015 Final Four.
Season Notes:
Strength of Schedule
• Preseason top-10 teams will meet six times in the non-conference portion of the schedule this year.
• UK will appear in four of those six matchups:
• UK vs. Kansas – Nov. 18
• Wisconsin vs. Duke – Dec. 3
• UK vs. Texas – Dec. 5
• Kansas vs. Florida – Dec. 5
• UK vs. North Carolina – Dec. 13 • UK at Louisville – Dec. 27
UK vs. the Country
• UK will play three first-time opponents in 2014- 15.
• Kentucky’s first-time opponents this season include: Buffalo, Grand Canyon and Montana State • The Wildcats have played 216 of the current 351 Division I programs.
UK as the Top-Ranked Team
• The Wildcats own an all-time record of 179-27 as the nation’s top-ranked squad.
• UK has won 19 of its last 21 contests as the AP’s top team.
Calipari at No. 1
• Calipari is one of just two coaches (Frank Mc-Guire) to lead three programs to a No. 1 ranking. • Calipari is 63-9 as the top-ranked coach in the country.
• He tallied a 32-4 mark at UMass when the Min- utemen were No. 1 and he was 9-1 at Memphis when he had the Tigers at the pinnacle of the rankings.
• Calipari is 22-4 when his team is at the top as UK’s head coach.
• Calipari has guided six of his last eight teams to the No. 1 ranking and this year marks the seventh time he’s led his team to the top ranking throughout his career.
• He guided his 1994-95 and 1995-96 UMass teams to the No. 1 ranking, as well as his 2007- 08 Memphis team and his 2009-10, 2011-12, 2013-14 and 2014-15 Kentucky teams.
Point Guards on Cousy Award Watch List
• Andrew Harrison and Tyler Ulis were among 36 candidates for the Bob Cousy Award watch list.
• UK was one of two schools with multiple selections.
• List will be cut to 20 in early February, with a final five in early March.
Preseason All-America Honors Roundup
• Two Wildcats have been named to preseason All-America teams by various publications.
• Aaron Harrison was a first-team selection to the Sporting News All America Squad
• Karl-Anthony Towns was a third-team All-America selection on both the Sporting News and CBSSports teams.
• Towns was tabbed a first-team All-American by USA Today.
• Aaron Harrison and Willie Cauley-Stein were honorable mention honorees by USA Today.
Kentucky Preseason SEC Favorites
• The Kentucky men’s basketball team was unanimously selected by the media to win its 46th Southeastern Conference championship this sea- son as announced by the league office.
• UK is the first unanimous selection since the 1995-96 Kentucky team was picked for the same honor.
• The Wildcats were the overall preseason favor- ite, marking the 10th time since 1998-99 that UK was the early-season pick.
Media Tab Aaron Harrison as SEC POY; Four Others Earn Preseason All-SEC Teams
• Sophomore Aaron Harrison was selected as the favorite to win the league’s player of the year honor.
• Harrison was one of five Wildcats to tabulate at least one vote for player of the year honors.
• Harrison was the lone player to appear on the preseason All-SEC first team.
• Four Wildcats, Willie Cauley-Stein, Andrew Har- rison, Alex Poythress and Karl-Anthony Towns, were tabbed to the second team.
• Kentucky held five of the 10 total slots on the two preseason squads.
• No other team had multiple picks.
Experience Matters
• Eight Wildcats return who saw significant action in 2014-15 from the national championship run- ner-up squad from a season ago.
• UK returns 67 percent of its assists (300), 65 percent of minutes played, 59 percent of scoring (1,773) and 54 percent of rebounds (872) pro- duced from the Final Four team a season ago.
• The production is the most returning for John Calipari since taking over the reins of the UK pro- gram in 2009-10.
Three-Mania
• UK has the nation’s second longest active streak of consecutive games with a made 3-pointer.
• Kentucky has knocked down at least one from long range in 901 consecutive games.
• UK passed Vanderbilt for second on the list during the 2014 NCAA Tournament run.
• The Wildcats’ last game without a made 3-pointer came against Seton Hall on Nov. 26, 1988 a “three-point” loss in the Great Alaska Shootout.
• UNLV holds the nation’s longest streak with 909 consecutive games with a made 3-pointer.
Shot Blocker ‘U’
• Junior Willie Cauley-Stein has 170 career blocks.
• He trails Anthony Davis (186) by 16 to move into fifth place on UK’s all-time career records. • To become UK’s all-time shot blocker leader, Cauley-Stein needs 98 rejections.
• Cauley-Stein amassed 106 total swats as a sophomore to become the third different player in the last three seasons to have 100 or more blocked shots.
• John Calipari has coached UK’s top three shot blockers in three consecutive seasons (Davis – 186, Nerlens Noel – 106).