Fate makes no exception for Kentucky basketball when it comes to injuries
John Calipari was philosophical about Nate Sestina breaking his left wrist at Tuesday’s practice.
“It’s part of what we do,” the Kentucky coach said the next day when asked about the injury. Earlier that day, he said that injuries were part of “the ups and downs of basketball coaching.”
UK basketball’s storied history includes several injuries. Some ill-timed. Some not. Some breathing life into the tired adage of next man up. Some ruining seasons. Some might have sidetracked teams seemingly headed toward national championships.
Most, if not all, leave a tantalizing scent of what-if.
Radio analyst Mike Pratt, who had firsthand experience as a UK player with an injury impacting a season, said Sestina’s injury could have a long-term benefit.
“It’s going to give EJ Montgomery playing time,” Pratt said before Kentucky played UAB on Friday night. “It’s going to give Keion Brooks and Kahlil Whitney and Johnny Juzang all more playing time. So it’s up to those guys to make something of it.”
Montgomery got off to a good start against UAB. He scored a career-high 16 points and grabbed a season-high eight rebounds while playing a season-high 31-plus minutes.
Juzang made more than one shot for the first time in his young college career and had season highs with five points and two offensive rebounds.
It also helps Kentucky’s cause that Sestina broke his wrist in November, Pratt said. He’ll have time to recover and return to the rotation.
Such was not the case last season when Reid Travis missed five games after spraining a knee at Missouri on Feb. 19. Then PJ Washington sprained his left foot against Tennessee in the SEC Tournament, causing him to miss UK’s first two NCAA Tournament games.
“I thought both of those broke our momentum for a while,” Pratt said. “I thought we were on a pretty good roll.”
Two seasons ago, Jarred Vanderbilt missed the first 17 games because of a foot injury. Then a left leg injury sidelined him for the postseason.
“It was almost like start the car-stop the car,” Pratt said of this disruption to team chemistry.
Willie Cauley-Stein missed the 2014 Final Four because of a right ankle injury. Alex Poythress tore an ACL in 2014-15.
The standard for cursing an injury in Calipari’s 11 seasons as coach has to be Nerlens Noel tearing an ACL in 2012-13. Kentucky had a 17-6 record and a No. 25-ranking with Noel. After he went down at Florida on Feb. 12, UK lost by 30 at Tennessee four days later and limped to a 4-6 record in the remaining games.
“That really hurt because they didn’t have anybody mature enough to step in,” Pratt said of Noel’s injury.
Looking further back in history, there’s Derek Anderson tearing an ACL in 1996-97. Without him, UK advanced to the national championship game. With him, would the Cats have won the 1997 NCAA Tournament?
Sam Bowie’s stress fracture in a shin made for a marathon what-if. UK’s leading scorer in 1980-81, he was sidelined the following two seasons when UK won or shared SEC championships. It was impossible not to think greater vistas would have been conquered with a healthy Bowie contributing.
Then there’s Mike Casey breaking a leg in a car wreck prior to the 1969-70 season. He had scored 1,075 points his first two seasons. In that time, UK won 45 of 55 games. He, Dan Issel and Pratt formed a three-pronged foundation built over three years (together on the freshman team, then two varsity seasons).
“We knew each other like a glove,” Pratt said. “The rhythm was there for three years.”
Then Casey missed the 1969-70 season — in which UK was never ranked worse than No. 3 — and finished with a 26-2 record.
“Dan and I felt like we lost a piece of the puzzle that made it work,” Pratt said. “Would we have won the national title if Casey had not broken his leg? I don’t know.”
Home sweet home
Tennessee defeated Chattanooga 58-46 on Monday. That marked the Vols’ 30th straight home victory. That’s the longest active streak of home victories in the nation.
The second-longest active streak of home victories is Gonzaga’s 27 straight. Kansas has the third-longest streak with 24 straight.
Later this season, Kentucky will play at two of the sites of the 10 longest active home winning streaks. UK plays at Tennessee on Feb. 8.
Texas Tech was tied for the ninth-longest active home winning streak after beating Tennessee State on Nov. 21 and LIU Brooklyn (coached by Derek Kellogg, one of John Calipari’s UMass players) on Nov. 24. That made for the Red Raiders’ 10th and 11th straight home victories. Tech has won 51 straight home games against non-conference opponents. UK plays at Texas Tech on Jan. 25 as part of the SEC-Big 12 Challenge.
The loss to Evansville on Nov. 12 ended a five-game home winning streak for Kentucky. The most recent defeat prior to Evansville was to LSU last Feb. 12 (aka the game decided by the non-call for basketball interference on Kavell Bigby-Williams’ tip-in at the buzzer).
Streaking
Vanderbilt made 11 of 30 three-point shots in defeating Southeastern Louisiana 78-70 on Monday. That marked the 1,070th straight game the Commodores had made a three-point shot. That’s the second-longest active streak of games a team has made a three. Vandy added to its streak on Saturday with eight of 24 threes in a loss to Tulsa.
Of course, UNLV has the longest such streak. The Runnin’ Rebels have made a three-point shot in 1,079 games through Saturday’s loss at Cincinnati.
Duke has the third-longest such streak at 1,067 games.
Rounding out the top five longest streaks are Arkansas (1,018 after Saturday’s game win against Northern Kentucky) and Western Kentucky, which barely extended its streak to 1,016 games by making one of 17 three-point shots against Louisville on Friday.
Brad update
Through Saturday’s game at Ohio University, Brad Calipari was Detroit Mercy’s fourth-leading scorer with an average of 6.3 points. He had made 11 of 27 three-point shots (40.7 percent) and one of three two-point shots.
His average of 22.2 minutes suggested he’s meeting his stated objective of getting more playing time. He played a total of 28 minutes in his last season for UK (2017-18).
In the preseason, Detroit Mercy Coach Mike Davis said he hoped Calipari’s perimeter shooting would take some defensive attention away from the team’s star guard — and the coach’s son — Antoine Davis. Through six games, the younger Davis has averaged 25.2 points. He has averaged 36.5 minutes per game.
Winning shot
In more ways than one, Stephen F. Austin defeated No. 1 Duke thanks to a winning shot.
Nate Bain, a senior from Freeport, Bahamas, drove to a winning layup to give Stephen F. Austin an 85-83 overtime victory.
Two months earlier, Hurricane Dorian destroyed Bain’s family home. Stephen F. Austin set up an online relief effort at GoFundMe. That effort came to athletics director Ryan Ivey’s mind as he celebrated Bain’s winning shot.
“I’m glad we didn’t take the GoFundMe down when we thought about closing it last week,” Ivey told The Wall Street Journal in a story published Friday.
The relief effort went online Sept. 17 with the goal of raising $25,000. Barely $2,000 had been raised, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Then Bain made the winning shot. As of 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, about $16,000 had been raised. That total jumped to $25,000 within 30 minutes, and organizers raised the goal to $50,000.
By Thursday night, $130,000 had been raised thanks to donations from all 50 states, The Wall Street Journal reported.
With Name Image and Likeness a hot topic, it should be noted that the NCAA allows such a fundraiser under “extreme circumstances that should be extraordinary in the result of events beyond the student-athlete’s control (e.g. life-threatening illness, natural disaster).”
For those scoring at home, it’s Rule 16.11..7.7 (g).
Happy birthday
To Larry Johnson. He turned 65 on Thursday. … To UK signee Brandon Boston, Jr. He turned 19 on Friday. … To Nick Richards. He turned 22 on Friday. … To Julius Randle. He turned 25 on Friday. … To Jamal Mashburn. He turned 47 on Friday. … To UK assistant coach Joel Justus. He turned 38 on Friday. … To former UK Coach Joe B. Hall. He turned 91 on Saturday. … To Brandon Knight. He turns 28 on Monday.
