Kentucky basketball: Make that 2 straight Wildcat wins by fending off Vandy

Jacob Toppin a near-flawless performance

Many thought with the talent this team was projected to have entering the season Toppin might consider red-shirting. Well, that didn’t pan out and Toppin is making the most of his opportunities.

Against Vandy, he ran the floor, blocked shots, rebounded, and was having fun till he finally was forced to take a late second-half breather nearly exhausted.

He played 19 minutes, tallied 16 points on 5 of 9 shooting, and a perfect 5 of 5 at the foul line while chipping four rebounds, two assists, and a block while not turning it over a single time.

Calipari was all praise for Toppin’s performance.

"“Yeah, I was so happy. What I said to the team after – a real team, a team – really doesn’t know who is going to have that big game. And whoever it is, everybody is ecstatic for. And they were ecstatic for him in that locker room. And that’s what I’m saying, we’re becoming a team. Instead of doing what I want to do, what does the team need me to do. And Jacob went in, looked good, we were able to put him on the point guard, which meant we could switch him to the big guy. And for Jacob, this is found money, this is money he found in the couch. Nice bit of change he picked up.”"

While his minutes from game to game widely vary when he does check in we normally get quality minutes.