VMI’s offense presents new challenge for Kentucky. ‘We’re going to have to be disciplined.’

Assistant coach Tony Barbee, who substituted for Kentucky Coach John Calipari at Friday’s news conference, said the Wildcats improved significantly on defense in the last game.

A grading of film of the victory over North Dakota came to close to 25 minutes of satisfactory defense, he said. That was an increase from “10 or 15 minutes” against Southern Illinois.

The style of the opponent on Sunday, VMI, may require more improvement still. VMI plays a variation of the Princeton offense, which means the likelihood of Kentucky needing to defend deep into the shot clock.

“We’re going to have to be disciplined on defense,” Barbee said. “It’s going to be a challenging game from that standpoint.”

Immanuel Quickley acknowledged the possible need to stay in a defensive stance and concentrate for 30-plus seconds is a challenge.

“It’s definitely tough . . . ,” he said before adding that Kentucky “does a really good job fighting through that fatigue.”

Quoting Vince Lombardi, Barbee said that fatigue makes cowards of us all. “Just human nature,” he said.

Earlier in the week, Calipari likened VMI to Princeton.

“I can certainly see him saying that,” VMI Coach Dan Earl said. “We do have some of their tendencies.”

Earl’s brother, Brian Reed, played at Princeton in the 1990s, and now is coach at Cornell.

“Philosophically, I like a lot of what they do,” the VMI coach said.

But VMI does not see itself as replicating the classic Princeton style.

“As you hear ‘the Princeton offense,’ some people think a little bit more old school, meaning hold the ball till the last three seconds of the shot clock, and millions of passes and just back cutting and all that,” Earl said. “We’re not trying to play that way at all.

“But we do have some of the tendencies where we bring the center out from the basket a little bit. We do like to have ball movement. So a bunch of different passes, a bunch of different guys touching the ball. Then we do like to cut, but we have more ball screens and, hopefully, shooting a little quicker than people think the Princeton offense is.”

VMI’s style figures to be in sharp contrast with the last time Kentucky played the Keydets. Ten years ago, VMI beat UK 111-103.

“They’re playing like a turtle compared to how we played,” said Duggar Baucom, who was VMI’s coach 10 years ago and now coaches at The Citadel. “Kind of a pseudo Princeton. It’s not a traditional Princeton, but they’re pretty meticulous in the shots they take.”

Austin Kenon, a player for VMI 10 years ago and now an assistant coach, said the Keydets do not intend to play especially slow.

“We’re definitely not as transition-oriented,” he said in comparing VMI in 2018-19 with the team in 2008-09. “We do tell our guys to play fast, but that’s not our priority. That’s not our identity, shall I say. . . . We play more off read and react, really. . . . Trying to find the right plays and right read within our offense.”

That is the challenge Kentucky’s on-the-uptick defense faces on Sunday.

Sunday

VMI at No. 10 Kentucky

When: 6 p.m.

TV: SEC Network

This story was originally published November 16, 2018 at 3:36 PM.