‘The dude was incredible.’ Nick Richards leads Kentucky past Missouri.
With Kentucky playing Missouri at the end of the week, John Calipari posed a pointed question on his radio show in the direction of Nick Richards.
The UK coach set up the question by calling Missouri’s Jeremiah Tilmon “maybe one of the best (big men) we’ll play.”
That led Calipari to say, “How is (Richards) going to play?”
Quite well, thank you.
Richards’ sixth double-double of the season led Kentucky to a 71-59 victory over Missouri. He finished with 21 points and 12 rebounds before exiting to UK fan applause when he fouled out with 3:51 left.
“He was the difference-maker in the game …,” Missouri Coach Cuonzo Martin said. “They got more from their ‘bigs’ than we did from ours. …
“You hate to lose games, but you love to see a young guy grow like that as a junior in college.”
Tilmon scored seven points and grabbed three rebounds in eight-plus minutes of playing time.
With Immanuel Quickley adding a career-high 23 points, UK won convincingly in a Southeastern Conference opener billed repeatedly as a tough test. No. 17 Kentucky improved to 10-3. Missouri, which was looking for its first road victory against a top-20 team since beating then-No. 3 Baylor on Jan. 21, 2012, fell to 8-5.
The first half was the Nick Richards show. He scored 17 points to lead Kentucky to a 31-26 lead at the break.
“Nick played really, really well,” fellow UK ‘big’ Nate Sestina said. “The dude was incredible. He scored out of the post. Shot jump shots. Rebounded the ball. Ran the floor well.
“He did a lot of stuff that people don’t really pay attention to.”
For example, Richards “ran the floor,” Sestina said. “It opened it up for our guards to drive after him.”
Richards scored UK’s first nine points, and 14 of the first 17. As Sestina suggested, Richards scored in a variety of ways. His Euro step en route to a layup inspired a reference to GOAT (greatest of all time) on social media.
“No comment,” Richards said with a smile.
When asked if he had executed a Euro step in a game previously, Richards said, “I can’t remember the last time I did one, but that’s not my first one. I promise you that.”
No doubt, it helped Richards that Tilmon, who has a history of foul trouble, picked up two fouls and went to the bench after playing only four minutes in the first half. Tilmon first entered the game at the 15:55 mark. It took only 10 seconds for him to pick up his first foul.
UK assistant coach Tony Barbee had called Tilmon “as big a physical presence as there is, not just in our conference, but in the country.”
Kentucky needed Richards — or someone — to play well. Missouri led by as much as eight with 10:22 left in the first half.
The first UK player other than Richards to score was Tyrese Maxey, the hero of the Louisville game. He made only one of six shots in the first half: a driving shot with 10:05 left.
Kentucky took its first lead with 8:13 left when Quickley made the first of his two three-pointers in the half. It put UK ahead 19-17.
The lead grew to as much as 31-23 when Richards made a free throw with 2:24 left.
The only first-half basket by Missouri’s leading scorer, Mark Smith, was a three-pointer with a minute left. It set the halftime score.
The referees whistled Missouri for five fouls before the first television timeout of the second half. That figured to mean UK visits to the foul line. Coming into the game ranked 54th in the nation in made free throws, the Cats made 18 of 20 in the second half.
With 7:46 left, Richards gave ever-wanting-more Calipari an opening. After more than one warning from the referees, he and Tilmon got into an altercation that led to a technical fouls on both players. It was both players’ fourth foul.
Richards acknowledged the error. “I’d probably have had more points and rebounds” if the exchange had not happened, he said.
Calipari voiced concern that future opponents might try to goad Richards in a similar way.
“So, if I’m watching our game and I’m a coach of another team, would you stick in a bad player and say, ‘Grab his shorts, push him a little bit?’” Calipari said in asking a rhetorical question. “Wouldn’t you? You’d put a bad player and push him and shove him. …
“He doesn’t have the composure because he’s never been this guy. Now, he’s this guy. You have a different responsibility. But he did great. I’m proud of him.”
Next game
No. 17 Kentucky at Georgia
9 p.m. Tuesday (ESPN)
This story was originally published January 4, 2020 at 6:46 PM.
