Kentucky made a major statement against No. 8 Miami. ‘A moment that we’ll never forget.’

A little more than 14 years ago, John Wall was introduced to an adoring Rupp Arena crowd hoping beyond hope that Kentucky basketball was about to get fun again.

Wall greeted his new fans — UK faithful who had just lived through a few years of relatively tough times — by breaking out a dance move that signaled, yes, things were about to change.

Over the season that followed — John Calipari’s first in Lexington — that team delivered.

On Tuesday night, Wall, now 33 years old, sat courtside to watch a new bunch of young Wildcats absolutely dismantle the No. 8 team in the country, Rupp Arena roaring its collective approval throughout a 95-73 victory over Miami.

During the second half — amid an unfathomable offensive onslaught by the Cats — another UK player from that 2009-10 team, Daniel Orton, pulled up a chair next to Wall and sat down. The two former teammates talked and smiled over the final minutes of the 22-point victory — the sound of cheers cascading around them, but, this time, directed at a new bunch in white and blue.

They were all witnesses to an undeniable truth.

Kentucky basketball is fun again.

The signs had been there since the summer, when a UK team comprised of mostly freshmen traveled north to Canada to compete in the GLOBL JAM international tournament and flashed an entertaining brand of basketball not seen around these parts in years. Could it last? There were plenty of skeptics.

Blowout wins over New Mexico State and Texas A&M-Commerce to start the season kept the buzz going, but those teams were overmatched. After that, the Cats nearly upset No. 1-ranked Kansas, but they didn’t. The Jayhawks beat back the young UK team in the end. It was another entertaining night, but there are no moral victories in the world of Kentucky basketball. After that, Reed Sheppard dropped 25 points on Stonehill College. Then came an overtime thriller over Saint Joseph’s. And last Friday night, the Cats scored 118 points in a rout of Marshall. Wall’s team never scored that many. Neither had any other squad in Calipari’s 15 seasons as Kentucky’s coach.

The clincher came Tuesday night. The Cats were ready. And so was Rupp Arena.

“It was unbelievable,” Sheppard said. “The crowd was unbelievable. I don’t think they sat down one time. It was so loud. From the first possession to the last possession, they made a huge impact on the game. I think they made it tough for Miami to run stuff. It was unbelievable, really. …

“It was definitely a moment that we’ll never forget.”

Miami, boasting one of the nation’s best offenses, made its first four shots of the game. But Kentucky, which — it can now be argued — might have the best collection of offensive talent in the country, roared right back. And the Rupp crowd roared along with them.

When an 11-1 UK run gave the Cats a 21-11 lead and forced Miami coach Jim Larranaga to call a timeout with 11:39 left in the first half, it was the loudest the building had been all season.

And it only got louder from there.

After the game, senior guard Antonio Reeves said he’d never heard Rupp make that much noise. “It brings us energy as a team. We can hear them erupting, and it just gives us energy down there.”

Miami fought back, that electric offense finding another gear. And then Kentucky answered with an 8-0 run to close the first half. And when they came out of the halftime locker room, the Cats effectively ran the Canes out of town.

Over a period of a little more than 11 minutes — from the tail-end of the first half until midway through the second — Kentucky made 18 of 20 shots and outscored Miami 45-18.

The Cats did this, it bears repeating, to the No. 8 team in the country.

“We just couldn’t guard ’em,” Larranaga said. “I thought the first team to 80 would win, but we didn’t score. We played totally out of character on offense, and that impacted our defense, which, unfortunately, is a weakness of ours.”

Indeed, the Hurricanes have been getting by on their offense to this point. Their defense remains a work in progress, rated No. 117 nationally by KenPom coming into the night.

And Kentucky had its way.

Sheppard led the Cats with 21 points, making five of his first six shots from 3-point range and impacting the box score in just about every category. Reeves scored 18. Tre Mitchell had 14 points and seven assists. Rob Dillingham had 12 points and nine assists. Justin Edwards scored 11 and took just seven shots. The Cats, as a team, dished out 26 assists and shot 59.7 percent from the field, making exactly two-thirds of their shots in the second half.

Miami had just eight assists on 26 baskets.

“You can’t win individually. Kentucky showed us that’s the facts,” Larranaga said. “You gotta share the ball and find the open man and get assists. That’s what they did, and that’s what we didn’t do.”

The Miami coach chalked that up, in part, to the hype of the game and the electric Rupp crowd. Sheppard, a Kentucky kid who hears the roar from those fans whenever anything goes his way, grew up attending games in the building. He knows it well. He’d rarely heard it like this.

“This was the first time Rupp’s been that packed this season,” he said. “And that was the loudest I’ve heard ’em in a long time.”

Toward the end, the UK student section started an “Overrated!” chant. Calipari quickly wheeled around and told them to knock it off. Turning away from the action on the court, he gestured that they should cheer on their Cats instead.

“And how about the fans? They responded and just stopped,” he said. “That’s how good a group that we have.”

As soon as Calipari turned his attention back to the court, the student section erupted into a new chant: “SEC! SEC! SEC!” On the first night of the inaugural ACC/SEC Challenge, the game in Lexington was a no-doubter.

Those first few seasons of the Calipari era were filled with environments like this one. Guys like Wall and DeMarcus Cousins rejuvenated the program. Then Anthony Davis and the 2012 group delivered a national title. The team three years later capped off a perfect regular season in Rupp. The last few years, it’s been well-documented, have failed to live up to that early excellence. The past three seasons, in particular, have been filled with hard-to-watch basketball, even when the Cats came out on top.

This one looks different. And Tuesday night felt different.

Sheppard, who has been arguably Kentucky’s best player despite coming off the bench in the Cats’ first seven games, has also become the poster child for the “team basketball” mentality of this UK squad. There he was again after Tuesday night’s victory, deflecting praise with comments about doing whatever he needs to help his team win and making the right play.

“And with these dudes around me, it’s really, really easy doing that,” he said. “I mean, we were hitting shots left and right tonight. Everybody was moving the ball, passing and having fun. It’s really, really easy to play with these guys.”

And, the more they play together, it might become really, really hard to beat them. Especially with 20,000 strong in their corner.

Just how difficult is it to keep these Cats down when the Rupp crowd gets like that?

“We didn’t figure out a way to do it,” Larranaga said. “I don’t know how many teams will when they come here.”

Next game

UNC Wilmington at No. 12 Kentucky

When: 4 p.m. Saturday

TV: SEC Network

Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1

Records: UNC Wilmington 5-1, Kentucky 6-1

Series: First meeting

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