Kentucky’s slim victory over Vandy sends clear message: ‘You need Nick’
It would seem a ninth double-double of the season — and fifth in the last nine games — sent a clear message about Nick Richards’ importance to the Kentucky team.
And even if unnecessary, Kentucky’s 71-62 victory over Vanderbilt on Wednesday served to reinforce that point. When foul trouble limited Richards to four scoreless minutes in the first half, UK trailed 35-28 at halftime to a team about to set a record with a 25th consecutive Southeastern Conference regular-season loss.
Then Richards stayed on the floor for 17 minutes in the second half, scored 15 points and grabbed 10 of his 11 rebounds. And Kentucky outscored Vandy 43-27 in the second half.
Coincidence?
UK Coach John Calipari did not think so. And to make sure no one else thought so, he succinctly drove home a point about what Richards means to the Kentucky team.
“What did you learn about my team?” Calipari asked the media at his postgame news conference. Then he answered his own rhetorical question.
“You need Nick,” he said.
When asked his reaction to Calipari’s declaration that the game was a tribune to the big man’s value to the UK team, Richards seemed surprised.
“Really?” he said.
When reporters confirmed Calipari’s comment, the message Richards said he heard was “that he over-exaggerates. I think we have a lot of great pieces on our team.”
Richards mentioned the three-guard perimeter of Ashton Hagans, Tyrese Maxey and Immanuel Quickley, the more-productive-of-late EJ Montgomery, plus off-the-bench contributions from Keion Brooks, Johnny Juzang and Nate Sestina.
But Calipari’s Exhibit A was irrefutable evidence. As Richards sat because of foul trouble, UK fell behind to a Vandy team that ultimately would lose for the 12th time in 20 games (0-7 in the SEC).
With Richards looming large in the second half, Kentucky improved to 16-4 overall and 6-1 in league play.
“He gets in foul trouble on dumb fouls,” Calipari said. “You can’t do that to us. We need you on the court. We need you on the court.”
Richards’ second foul came with 16:34 left in the first half. His fouls came in rapid succession, the first against a driving Vandy player, the second trying to block a shot as a help defender.
Richards acknowledged how the early fouls were not helpful.
“I couldn’t do that even if I was, like, the seventh man on the bench coming off,” he said. “I can’t do that: get two fouls in two minutes. That’s really bad.”
In previous seasons, Richards bemoaned “ticky-tack” fouls. After this game, his explanation came in a tone of voice that suggested he could accept the calls.
Of the first foul, he said, “I cut him off on the baseline. The ref said I pushed him out of bounds. I don’t know. I’ll just go watch the film and see if I did that.
“The next one, I thought I hit the ball first, then I hit (the shooter’s) arm. I thought when you hit the ball first, you can hit the arm after that.
“But, you know, the referees, they ref how they want to ref. And, as a player, you just have to listen to them and figure it out.”
Richards scored nine of his 15 points in the final 7:07. By then, it was obvious that Kentucky would not trounce a Vandy team that ranked last (six) or next to last (eight) in 14 of the 21 statistical categories the SEC compiles.
Defense and a bit of player-driven coaching by Quickley got UK to the winner’s circle. Vandy did not make a field goal in the final 5:38 (and only had one in the final 9:02).
On offense, Quickley called for screens that resulted in Richards dunks off screens in the final two minutes.
“That was not me,” Calipari said. “And that’s where I want this to go.”
Maxey saluted Richards.
“We need him,” the freshman said. “He grabbed every single rebound down the stretch. Even when I was trying to grab a rebound, he took one from me (and) said, ‘Give me that. Get out of the way, little man.’”
Richards has blossomed as a college junior and can serve as an example of how the player you see today might not be the player you see in the future. And Vandy Coach Jerry Stackhouse saw a bright basketball future that includes the NBA for the Kentucky big man.
“Absolutely,” Stackhouse said. “I think he has all of the tools. … The best Nick Richards that you’re going to see isn’t going to happen while he is here at Kentucky. He’s going to be a guy whose ceiling is going to be a lot higher at the next level.”
Next game
No. 13 Kentucky at No. 17 Auburn
6 p.m. Saturday (ESPN)
