Having three point guards still adding up to too many turnovers for UK
In five of the last nine games, Kentucky has had more turnovers than assists. This puzzles John Calipari.
“The issue for us is that we’re playing with three point guards,” the UK coach said. “Our decision-making late in games should be better than anybody else’s in the country.”
A turnover resulting from Nick Richards trying to make a post-to-post pass in the first half at Vanderbilt caused Calipari to put his hands to the side of his head. With Kentucky ahead 62-53 inside the game’s final five minutes, two straight turnovers helped Vandy close within 62-57.
With UK coaches already on record as saying the team does not have an abundant margin for error, the turnovers can be costly.
“If you’re a point guard, are you trying to make the hardest play?” Calipari said. “Are you not seeing what the game is? If we’ve got something easy, fine. If not, we’re going to work the clock.”
Calipari said that dealing with this issue was part of the annual process every team faces in forming a cohesive unit.
Shove off?
In his postgame comments at Vanderbilt on Tuesday, Calipari suggested that a significant moment came in the ongoing process of making Kentucky a player-driven team. It involved Ashton Hagans and Nick Richards.
“Did you see him push Nick out to the corner on that guy?” Calipari said of Hagans getting Richards to contest an open perimeter shooter. “He one-hand chucked him.”
Richards did not remember it that way.
“Not so,” he said. “He did not (shove me).”
When asked to explain the discrepancy, Richards said, “I guess I just moved out there so aggressively, (Calipari) thought Ashton shoved me. He didn’t shove me.”
‘Win February’
Ole Miss lost seven of eight games in January. The Rebels began February by losing at LSU.
Coach Kermit Davis then met with his top player, Breein Tyree.
“I said, ‘Breein, let’s win February,’” Davis recalled saying. “‘Let’s just be the best team we can be in February.’”
Ole Miss is off to a good start having beaten South Carolina, Florida and Mississippi State in its last three games to improve its records to 13-11 overall and 4-7 in the SEC.
“I’m not trying to trick anybody,” Davis said of the win-February goal. “Everybody’s got to have some kind of mantra during the season when it’s not going well, and I was trying to redirect it to a new purpose.”
Father-son
The Ole Miss coach’s father, also named Kermit Davis, planned to accompany the team on the trip to Lexington.
For the elder Davis, it will be his first time inside Rupp Arena. But it won’t be his first trek to Lexington. In the 1970s, he coached Mississippi State. His time as coach included leading State against Kentucky in UK’s last regular-season game in Memorial Coliseum. The younger Davis, then 16, accompanied his father to that game.
“Gosh, they had them beat,” the Ole Miss coach said. But UK won 94-93 in overtime. It was inevitable, the younger Davis said.
“Kentucky’s not losing the last game in Memorial Coliseum on Senior Night,” he said.
Friendly rivals
The game will feature a competition between close friends. UK associate head coach Kenny Payne and Davis first became acquainted more than 30 years ago.
“He was a young high school player,” Davis said. “I was a GA (graduate assistant) at Mississippi State.”
State recruited Payne, a star player for Northeast Jones High School in Laurel, Miss.
“He broke our hearts and went to Louisville,” Davis said.
Later, Davis coached one of Payne’s cousins at Idaho, the UK coach said.
“He’s a good guy,” Davis said of Payne. “I know they don’t want to lose him there. But, he deserves to be a head coach somewhere. That’s for sure.”
New Jersey to Oxford?
Ole Miss guard Breein Tyree is from Somerset, N.J. That sparks a question: How did a high school player from New Jersey end up at Ole Miss?
His teammates at St. Joseph High School help explain. Tyree played with Karl-Anthony Towns and Wade Baldwin, who subsequently signed with Kentucky and Vanderbilt, respectively.
“So, there was a little SEC flavor in the gym,” said Andy Kennedy, who was the Ole Miss coach at the time of Tyree’s recruitment.
Etc.
Calipari has been UK’s coach for 400 games. His record is 324-76. The victory over Mississippi State last week moved him past Joe B. Hall for the second-most games as UK coach. Hall was coach for 397 games (297-100). Of course, Adolph Rupp was UK coach for the most games. … Karl Ravech and Jimmy Dykes will call the game for ESPN.
