Mark Pope shuffles the lineup as Kentucky blows out another major underdog

Ben Roberts, Lexington Herald-Leader on Dec 9, 2025

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LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentucky stuck to the script in Rupp Arena on Tuesday night.

The UK men’s basketball team played its sixth game of the season against an overmatched, mid-major opponent. And the Wildcats secured their sixth blowout victory, a 103-67 win over North Carolina Central, an opponent that entered the night at No. 350 nationally in the KenPom ratings.

Kentucky was a 44.5-point favorite in this one. The Cats won their previous five games against lesser competition by an average of 42.4 points.

UK’s latest result won’t do anything to lessen the angst around coach Mark Pope’s team, which is 0-4 against ranked competition this season and fell out of the Top 25 on Monday for the first time in Pope’s tenure after a week that included a home loss to North Carolina and a 35-point defeat at the hands of Gonzaga in front of a pro-UK crowd in Nashville.

The Wildcats’ next shot at redemption will come Saturday, when they host Indiana at 7:30 p.m. in Rupp Arena. The Hoosiers fell out of the national rankings Monday, too — after suffering losses to Minnesota and Louisville last week — but they’re still a name-brand opponent currently projected to be an NCAA Tournament team at the end of this season.

Pope’s squad needs a win against an opponent like that. On Tuesday night, the Cats played the lowest-rated team on the 2025-26 schedule.

They still struggled a bit at the start, with Trent Noah — a starter in this one as Pope decided to shuffle up his lineup — hitting a 3-pointer for the first basket of the game, a shot that propelled UK to an 8-2 lead in the opening minutes.

But the Cats didn’t gain their first double-digit lead until after the midway point of the first half, and Pope called a timeout to light into his team — Brandon Garrison, specifically — after a turnover led to an NCC dunk and cut Kentucky’s lead to 29-21 with a little more than eight minutes left in the period.

The Cats went on a 16-0 run shortly after that and took a 52-31 lead into halftime. Garrison was benched for the rest of the game after that incident.

Noah started alongside Denzel Aberdeen, Collin Chandler, Otega Oweh and Malachi Moreno. Noah took the spot previously occupied by Kam Williams, who did not play until coming into the game with 12:35 left in the second half.

Jaland Lowe, the Cats’ top point guard, didn’t check into the game until 14:32 remained in the second half, making his first appearance with the Cats up 64-44. He made his return to the court — after missing five consecutive games with a shoulder injury — in Friday’s 94-59 loss to Gonzaga, playing 14 minutes off the bench in that one.

Mouhamed Dioubate, the team’s regular starting power forward, missed his fifth consecutive game with an ankle injury. Sophomore forward Jayden Quaintance also remains out as he continues to recover from offseason knee surgery.

Freshman guard Jasper Johnson came off the bench to score a career-high 22 points for the Wildcats.

Oweh added a season-high 21 points, going 3 for 4 from 3-point range and grabbing seven rebounds with four steals. Noah scored 11 points, all in the first half, and went 3 for 6 from deep, with six rebounds and three assists. Moreno tallied 14 points and seven rebounds. Chandler had seven points and eight assists, while Aberdeen tallied eight points and five assists.

UK walk-on Zach Tow scored Kentucky’s final points of the game, a 3 with 32 seconds left for his first field goal as a college player.