It just felt like the series was ending. Winning 18 straight regular season games against Mississippi State and the last home win for the Bulldogs in Starkville, Kentucky in 2008 was bound to make a mistake at some point. Chris Jans has MSU starting with an All-SEC talent in Josh Hubbard, who will carry the scoring load, the revenge factor on their side after Reed Sheppard broke their hearts in a game-winning game a year ago. Their strengths as a team were the Wildcats’ weaknesses, physicality and toughness, which were seen as an alarming overall question due to the terrible loss in Athens just days earlier.

The fans had been camped out since midnight and Humphrey Coliseum was sold out. Undefeated at home and 4-0 against the Quad 1 competition. If this 17-year run ever came to an end, it would be now.

And then Jaxson Robinson happened.

Jaxson Robinson finally breaks through

After the fifth-grader’s confidence had hit a rough patch recently, he managed to achieve the highest major success of his career with 27 points and an impressive score of 9:12 and 7:10 from three points. It was certainly the best overall performance of his time at Kentucky, but I would argue that he has never looked better in 112 college games. He was calm and confident, but most of all he was passionate and emotional. The energy was palpable and grew with every movement of his wrist; there was no doubt in his mind that every shot fell through the net. There was a joy and love for the game that we hadn’t seen from Robinson since he transferred from BYU. It was a season-changing performance, the stepping stone to the individual glory this team desperately needed from him. Just when there was doubt that we would ever see this player as a Wildcat, he came through.

Just as Mark Pope promised, even at his lowest point. That’s what it’s about.

“My goodness, this is actually the best part of coaching,” Pope told KSR. “When you see guys grow and do things they didn’t know they could do, at times when they didn’t know if they could – when you get to be a part of that, it’s really something Special.”

Ansley Almonor wins the game for Kentucky

Robinson was the story, but Ansley Almonor was the hero and deserves equal praise. Mississippi State had a 14-point lead with 15:16 left and cut the lead to just two less than three minutes later. The momentum had completely shifted, leading to the Bulldogs’ first lead since the 3:39 mark of the first half. With 8:17 left, the Wildcats felt dead in the water. Toast. Cooked. Streak over. Of course, the two-point deficit wasn’t insurmountable, but the energy in the building reflected a crowd that refused to give back the lead and was desperate to finally lead their team to victory.

Add Almonor, who checked in and immediately drilled back-to-back 3-pointers to get the momentum going again, with Kentucky regaining a four-point lead, then another bomb from deep to close by seven moments soon after achieve. Like Robinson, it was his greatest achievement in blue and white, which is why you bring in a guy like the 6-7 forward Fairleigh Dickinson as the next-to-last scholarship player. He’s a plug-and-play shooting spark off the bench when misfortune strikes.

The BYU transfer laid the foundation, then Almonor won the game — plus two big throws from Robinson and Lamont Butler in the final minute and a substitution to put it on ice.

“I’ve said this so many times: Ansley Almonor fits the way we play perfectly and he’s going to win us some games and I love it when players make coaches look really smart because we’re not, but sometimes they make us. “Look smart. Ansley did that,” Pope told KSR after the game.

Andrew Carr proves this team is not soft

Let’s not forget that Almonor received increased minutes of action (19) because Andrew Carr missed practice all week with a serious back injury that almost forced him to miss the game. He went through a shootout and was officially listed as a game-time decision before deciding to give it a try after pregame warmups. The strength training staff monitored his pain and was ready to pull the plug at any time.

Instead, Carr came through and scored 21 points hard Minutes and contributed 13 points – third on the team – on 5-8 shooting with six rebounds and one assist. He fought and gave everything he could in the spurts, setting the tone with big threes at the start and finishing throughout about some crucial and-ones.

“It just shows we’re not a soft team,” Amari Williams told KSR. “The fact that he has back problems – which is serious – and he was still able to go out and compete, sit on the boards, block shots, play defense, just shows what kind of character he is is.”

“He’s a tough, tough kid, man,” Pope added. “He is a warrior. He’s a really tough kid. He loves our team.”

Lamont Butler rules out Josh Hubbard

10 points and eight assists with the Dagger at the end of regulation time is commendable in itself, but that doesn’t even take into account what he did on the other end of the floor. Butler was tasked with facing off against Hubbard, a candidate for First Team All-SEC and SEC Player of the Year honors. Butler limited the dynamic guard to 15 points on 5-16 shooting and 3-11 from three with two turnovers.

He helped get him into foul trouble, limiting himself to just 12 minutes with four players in the second half and then forcing a few hard Misses in moments where we saw Hubbard take the same shots in the same match a year ago. Just when you thought he was going for the bullseye, Butler pounced and made sure the sophomore stood out Only unpleasant enough to leave empty-handed. Five second-half points on 2-6 shooting and 1-5 from three changed the game, and Kentucky’s starting point guard was a big reason why.

Win No. 200 for Mark Pope

Perhaps greatest of all, in Pope’s first year at UK, it knocked the SEC road monster off the team’s neck and paved the way for his 200th career win. He humbly shrugged it off, calling it “100 percent on the list” why this achievement meant so much, but for his players it was everything.

For what he gave them through their own ups and downs, they wanted to return the favor with a career success that not every coach gets to experience.

“The 200th win for Coach Pope, that was a huge celebration for the whole team,” Robinson told KSR. “We couldn’t be more proud and grateful for Coach Pope and all the work and hours he puts in. He’s the first one in the gym and the last one out every night. This is huge, especially for me because I’ve been with him for the last three years. Just seeing how happy he was to be able to spend that time with him and experience that moment was really something special for me.”

This puts Kentucky at 4-0 against top 12 competition in NET this year – the best in college basketball. Everyone involved deserves that too. It was a performance that we will all remember for a long time.