Has UK’s defense gotten better? Missouri will be true test

There was a clear rough patch for Kentucky in Southeastern Conference play when the Cats lost five of seven games.

They struggled on offense.

They struggled on defense.

They struggled in general.

There was a specific type of team that was giving UK fits in that stretch: A team without a true post player that opts to use four guards on the perimeter.

“Those are tough games for us when we have a big lineup in,” Coach Matthew Mitchell noted of the opponents like Florida, Auburn and Vanderbilt. “When a team has two bigs we can handle it better.”

In recent weeks, as the No. 15 Cats have won four straight, there has been marked improvement against teams with the so-called “stretch four” player. UK has managed wins against teams like Louisiana State, Arkansas and Vanderbilt.

The Cats’ biggest test in that area likely will come Thursday night in Memorial Coliseum when UK faces No. 24 Missouri (7 p.m., SEC Network Plus), one of the most improved teams in the nation this season.

And one of the league’s best at spreading opponents out.

“It is going to be a huge, huge test,” Mitchell said of the Tigers (21-6, 8-6 SEC), who have won three in a row and started this season 13-0.

“The way they are constructed is that they can put everybody out on the perimeter and everybody can drive the ball and everybody is really aggressive and scrappy and plays really hard both offensively and defensively.”

It also hurts UK that one of its star defenders and leaders, Janee Thompson, might be limited by an ankle sprain. Both the senior and her coach said she probably will play, but it’s hard to know how much the ankle will affect her on Thursday night.

Kentucky (19-6, 8-6) has shown signs of coming around against teams like that recently. But the Tigers are among the league’s best in several key categories and they have a star in Sophie Cunningham, league Freshman of the Week five times this season.

The 6-foot-1 guard, who had her third double-double of the season last week with 24 points and 10 rebounds versus Auburn, averages a team-best 13.3 points a game on a team that has four different players averaging 9.3 points or better.

Much is still at stake for Kentucky with two games left in the regular season, first against Missouri and then at No. 11 Texas A&M on Sunday.

Currently, the Cats are locked in a five-way tie for fourth place in the SEC with Auburn, Florida, Georgia and Missouri. The top four seeds will receive a double bye in the SEC Tournament, which starts next week in Jacksonville, Fla.

There are still many variables involved, but the Cats are playing for a chance to host first- and second-round NCAA Tournament games in Memorial Coliseum and potentially play in the NCAA regional in Rupp Arena.

Junior guard Makayla Epps said the team is playing some of its best basketball down the stretch.

“We just feel like some of the losses we’ve taken, we shouldn’t have taken,” Epps said. “We can win out the rest of our schedule and that is our plan.”

There is no map to show exactly what UK has to do to earn some of those postseason rewards, so the plan is just to win the games it has left and hope for the best.

“We want to win out the rest of the regular season, we think that will get us a good seeding in the SEC Tournament and that will be great for us,” Thompson said. “We want to make a good run in that tournament and we think we can win it.”

Notes

▪ Thompson was named to the conference’s Community Service Team on Wednesday. The guard led UK in service hours volunteering all over campus, including visiting patients at the Markey Cancer Center, the Children’s Hospital and Habitat for Humanity, where she worked to help repair a local playground.

Earlier this year after a large fire in Lexington, Thompson delivered cookies and doughnuts to a campus firehouse as part of Firefighter Appreciation Day.

▪  As a part of Senior Night festivities, UK is sponsoring a “Student Fandemonium” event at Memorial Coliseum, which includes giveaways for students in attendance. Prizes include: 60-inch Vizio Smart TV, Apple TV, Beats wireless headphones, mountain bike and fitbit, Xbox Elite with controller and two games, Apple watch, GoPro with waterproof case and iPad mini.

This story was originally published February 24, 2016 at 5:39 PM with the headline "Has UK’s defense gotten better? Missouri will be true test."