After taking a tough loss in its last game at South Carolina, LSU men’s basketball stays on the road this week as it travels to Lexington to face Kentucky. Despite the Tigers handing the Wildcats a loss earlier this season, this will be one of their toughest losses of the season. Leading up to the game, I got the chance to talk to Hunter Shelton of The Kentucky Kernel, who serves as Sports editor and covers men’s basketball. Here is the conversation I had with Hunter, and what he had to say about this Kentucky team.

Rauterkus: Things have definitely changed for both teams since the first matchup, how would you describe where Kentucky is now compared to then?

Shelton: That is very true. I think Kentucky fans sort of hit the panic button after that LSU loss even though it was so early, but that’s what BBN does. They love to panic over nothing. Losing to a team that’s really solid in Baton Rouge without your starting point guard for what was like 36 minutes of the game, it didn’t end up being that big of a deal. Since then, the trajectories have changed pretty rapidly. I haven’t been able to keep as close of a tab on LSU as I have some other SEC teams, but I know there have been some other injury struggles there as well. Kentucky has definitely progressed a little bit better than LSU, I would say.

Rauterkus: The bench play from Kentucky has seemed to have progressed since the first game especially looking at a guy like Lance Ware. How would you describe the progression of him and that unit?

Shelton: Yeah, he’s definitely come into his own. On Saturday, he only played maybe two minutes. But when you get a guy who’s as dominant as Oscar, when you’re coming off the bench or someone like that, and [Calipari] said this, you know he’s trying to get him and Damien Collins minutes as much as he can, but it’s hard. How do you leave a guy like Oscar Tshiebwe on the bench for longer than five minutes again, like you just can’t, unless he’s in foul trouble. [Calipari] is one of those guys whose philosophy has been if you get two fouls in the first half, regardless how much time is left, you’re on the bench until the second half. Lance has been in his system for a couple of years now. Lance wants to see the team succeed. He has really blossomed into that role of coming in, even if it is for just a few plays, grabbing a couple of tough boards, maybe getting a dunk or two, picking up a couple fouls, getting Oscar that rest that he needs. Over the course of the season, I think he has accepted that and he’s done a pretty good job.

Rauterkus: Kellen Grady led the way in the win against Alabama and came on a little bit in the first game against LSU. What kind of impact has his emergence had on the team?

Shelton: So I think when he came in, it was okay he was this combo guard, who was this really good shooter, it was just about him finding his zone and getting hot. And there were some questions about him. Because when you pluck a guy from the transfer portal from someplace like Davidson, they aren’t always going to hit. Especially with the transfer portal being what it is now, where there’s so many guys going and so many options. We already knew he was a good shooter, but I believe in that first LSU game, I want to say that was one of those games where he was like 0-5 from three in the first half. Then in the second half, he started to get going. It was one of those things like once he saw the ball go in the basket, it was almost automatic. Now, we’re not even really seeing that. It’s like he doesn’t have that warm up motor, he’s just full go and he’s able to get his shot regardless. I think too, at first in the beginning of the season, he was maybe kind of struggling to get open and get that shot because teams knew how good of a shooter he was. But he’s really managed to combat that. And he’s able to hit these step back, step to the side shots where there’s a three hands in his face and once he hits the arc of his shot it does not matter as long as the basket is somewhat in range he’s going to hit or it’s going to come close. He even had the shot on Saturday against Alabama where he wasn’t even looking and the ball hits him in like the back or like in his hip and he just turns around, picks it up and makes the three. It’s hard to say he’s the most important player on the team because there’s a lot of important pieces given depth, but when he gets going there’s no one that is more game changing than him.

Rauterkus: Compared to Kentucky teams of the past, this team seems to have more experienced players including a few experienced transfers. Does that have to do with the performance of last year’s team? What made that the fabric of this team?

Shelton: I don’t know how much last year had to do with it because it’s happened before, like the year they were fresh off the national championship, they lost in the first round to Robert Morris in the NIT. These things happen from time to time. Although it’s not up to standard for Kentucky, it is human. It happens to every program at least once and I think just with how much the transfer portal has emerged, like [Calipari] has managed to stay ahead of the game, whatever it is, whether it’s his coaching style, or what he’s got to do to get the right players in his program to fit what he wants to do. He’s switched up his style many times since he’s been at Kentucky. I think experience played a decent part in what he was looking for this year. He already had [Davion] Mintz who came from Creighton a couple years ago. At this point it’s his third season with Kentucky technically, but you get a guy like him, and then Toppin comes in, and then Tshiebwe who was someone from West Virginia, who, there were a lot of question marks around him. You go back to some of the quotes that Bob Huggins said about him at West Virginia where he wasn’t a hard worker, and you see what he’s doing for Kentucky now, and you really question what the dynamic was there. Then you get someone like Kellan Grady, who you’ve seen with guys like him, like Wendell Green at Auburn. When you’re plucking guys from mid majors like that, and they turn out to be these superstar caliber players, you’ve really got to tip your cap to the coaches who are finding these guys.

So, I don’t know that last year had a big influence on that, but I do think [Calipari] was searching for experience. He said it multiple times this year, he doesn’t feel like he’s talking to a bunch of kids with this team. He’s able to get his point across. He said that this team hasn’t had a bad practice yet this season, which, going back to last year, and some of his other freshmen teams, that was a big thing. I guess having that experience and those couple of extra guys who have that experience kind of just pushed that along a little bit quicker.

Predictions

Rauterkus: With the way both teams are playing right now, I think this game very much favors Kentucky. LSU has struggled at times on the glass and if Tshiebwe can stay out of foul trouble I’ll think he’ll give LSU serious issues. I’m also not confident in LSU scoring enough points in this game.

Kentucky 74-62 LSU

Shelton: I think Tshiebwe’s presence down low is going to play a major factor as always, and LSU won’t be able to hang with him on the boards. With or without Washington and Wheeler, I think Kentucky has enough in the tank to outlast LSU at home.

Kentucky 80-72 LSU