Matt Jones on Kentucky’s buzzer beating win at Mississippi State

Kentucky Sports Radio host Matt Jones opened the KSR Postgame Show with his monologue on Kentucky’s win over Mississippi State.

There are about there’s about one game every two or three years in the regular season that you really remember right like that I can sit here to people of a certain age and say a game and you you can remember it like you can remember exactly the end or the

Details you know for me those games started with like the LSU comeback in uh I guess that was 94 um you know keris had a bunch of them the and a lot of them have been at Mississippi State the DeMarcus Cousins call me game you

Know John W that John Wall team had a bunch of those kind of games the the first game against Miami of Ohio the Yukon game the Carolina game then the Carolina game Anthony Davis’s year uh Julius randle’s team against LSU I Kevin Knox year against West Virginia I mean I

Could go on and on for all of you there’s different games well I think tonight’s going to be one of those for Kentucky I mean I think when you look back and you think of this season we will clearly think about whatever happens in March that will be the first thing we think

About but then the second thing I bet we think about is this game tonight because this will be like the Eric Daniels uh putback game many years ago and the call me game Dem marcus’ year Mississippi state has produced another regular season game uh that we’ll remember heck

Even the Billy the co year the best game was Dante Allen at Mississippi State he could not miss that day there’s something about playing in Starkville where we just create these moments and today was definitely one of them um I’ll just kind of go through the game as it

Went for my take I we started poorly both halves and you know the question I I have always been Cal’s biggest Advocate on the lineups don’t matter but starting the F starting the game I I’m I’m starting to switch this year because in the first and second

Half our our starts were what killed us but even in the first half throughout the first half even though we were down six to 10 most the first half I still kind of felt pretty good about where we were because they were hitting they were kind of hitting everything including DJ

Jeff hitting two threes and he shoots 26% that’s a guy I still remember the day he decommitted from Kentucky to go to Memphis I was in Jackson County for a radio show so you know I still felt good about where Kentucky was cuz I felt like they can’t shoot like that the whole

Game and then they didn’t and in the second half you know it again poor starts the second half the Reeves foul on the three that was little bit of bad luck I think he got shoved into him but still unforce then we’re down 14 but I still thought they could come

Back because I just felt like Kentucky kind of had their number on offense and it was just a matter of getting a few stops and then that’s exactly what happened they went I think six minutes where Mississippi State only scored two points we were able to get back in the game and

Then a really special performance in the second half from Reed Shepard I mean just a special performance well mostly offensively but also defensively had a couple blocks had a couple big steals um it was special and that’s what why people will remember it is how good

He was in that second half I mean it wasn’t just him Rob Dillingham went on a little seven-point run Reeves had his normal 20 to 24 points every single game um but you know Reed was special and so then you get up eight with a minute to

Go and you’re like what a win I was I was literally composing the tweet that said this is a mass like a a major win that could Propel the team to March I mean I already had it written and then we give up back toback threes and an and

One turn it over and all of a sudden it’s a game uh the last minute is one of the wildest minutes of college basketball you’ll ever see if we uh if we didn’t care about the outcome it would have been great theater to watch I’ve been a

Lot of people that aren’t Kentucky fans turned it off and didn’t even get to see it because they were like well this game’s over um but the hubard kid from Mississippi State I haven’t watched them play much and he didn’t play particularly well against

Us uh in in R but man he’s good um hit some big shots uh we did some really dumb things including not guarding the three-point line Reed had a terrible turnover um I’m not I’m not going to argue with people Billy I still think we should have filed on three especially

When the big guy had it because you know the big guy had it at the top of the key and he shot 52% from the line but you know what none of it matters because we won’t remember any of that what we’ll remember is Reed and then the shot at

The end of the game I mean you know for a team like Kentucky with a program like ours there oddly Billy aren’t a ton of buzzer beaters in the regular season you know what I mean I mean we have the amazing shots in the postseason right the Aaron Harrison shots they’re

Not buzzer beaters exactly but end of game shots Tyler hero had that shot against Houston Brandon Knight had a couple shots DeAndre liins I mean we have those but in the regular season if you sit here and say okay well what are the buzzer beaters there aren’t a ton of them now I

Know Tech technically this one is not one because I guess there were 0.5 seconds left but it really was I mean it was a it was a buzzer beater probably the last one was EJ Montgomery yeah that’s one I thought Florida that’s I think that’s the last one that I can

Think of somebody said quad green had one I don’t remember that one I’m I mean I’m sure it happened for some reason I can’t remember it but EJ Montgomery is the last one that comes to my mind but this one was great because Cal has always taken the view on the last play

Especially if they have to go full court to play it out with no timeout and you know people have different views of that uh I generally have been fine with it especially when he’s got the best players the last couple years besides this year I’m not sure we’ve had the

Best players so maybe we needed to set something but it but this is an example of why he likes to do that because DJ Wagner gets down the court he drives he really doesn’t a play and he kicks it out does it that that’s actually a very

Good pass a lot of guys take that shot right there and probably miss it and he flips it back to Reed who hits an awesome floater we got to be between Reed and Reeves we gotta have the best floaters in the country right I mean we

Have to and it’s it’s an awesome ending to an epic performance I mean that is a signature performance you sit there and go through the various Cal era single game performances he’s going to be up there you know with Reeves last year against uh against Arkansas Oscar when he went

For 20 and 20 um you know you can go through uh Jody Meeks like there’s a lot of them I know 32 points but it was they were all clutch they were all big shots they hit their free throws at the end three different guys right Reed Reeves

And Rob uh Rob all hit big free throws it’s a great win and now you set yourself up to where you have a really good chance even if you lose to tenness you have a really good chance of getting a buy um if you beat Tennessee you’re

Certainly going to get a buy and if actually if you beat tennessy you got a chance to win the league we we are set up now to where if everything plays out right we’ll play Tennessee for the SEC title now we need a couple things to

Happen but we now have the tiebreaker on Alabama Alabama plays at Florida and they play Tennessee they lose those two games Auburn beats Tennessee tomorrow night yeah we got a shot we got a shot to to tie for the league and and maybe even have the tiebreakers so this was a great

Win it was fun and this team this team has been can’t miss like excitement drama this year it’s been very frustrating at times we’ve we’ve been through it but it’s such a exciting team to watch and I saw a tweet right before I came on here which was from Justin Roland who work

You know who runs uh Cats Illustrated and he had a child today by the way I think he’s got Billy 37 children I believe oh that’s a lot of kids I think he I don’t know how many he has he has a lot but he had a child today so

Congratulations to him and his wife he had a tweet that thought was really good he he basically said you know Cal Perry is the perfect coach for Kentucky and there’s nobody that would be better because and I thought what he said was was really good Perry makes it to where these all

It’s always excitement especially this year I don’t know if you all follow ratings but the Kentucky games this year every time they’re on are the highest rated games of the night every night it’ll be that way tonight too every night every Saturday the Kentucky game is the highest rated game and it’s

Consistently higher than really Duke is not the same since shashy but we still are and we still are can’t miss drama and this year has been quite a ride and I think what has been frustrating at times the last three years is not only have we underachieved

It’s kind of felt a little boring at times well this team ain’t boring this team is exciting with likable guys with historically great shooting for Kentucky I mean this has to be this is probably the best threp pointing shoot three-point shooting team ever in Kentucky history and it certainly has

The best top three three-point shooters ever and every night you just don’t know what you’re going to get and there’s something frustrating but also exciting about that and tonight is a perfect example