Only one Kentucky men’s basketball player finished with a positive plus-minus on Saturday night: junior forward Lance Ware. In his 14 minutes played, Ware finished with a +8 in that category. The player he was ultimately benched for in the second half, senior forward Jacob Toppin, finished with a team-worst -16.
Yes, it was only a one-game sample size, but it was wholly indicative of how the Wildcats stumbled down the stretch against No. 16 UCLA. Kentucky head coach John Calipari elected to roll with a struggling Toppin in the final 13 minutes instead of Ware, who was one of two Wildcats (the other being freshman Chris Livingston) that injected any semblance of energy into his team.