SEC title not high priority for Kentucky. ‘Our season is about building toward March.’
Kentucky Coach John Calipari makes no secret that the Southeastern Conference regular-season championship is mere prelude, at best, to the NCAA Tournament.
So, when asked Friday what it will mean should UK clinch the program’s 49th SEC title by beating Auburn on Saturday, Calipari said, ‘It means we win the league, I guess.”
Calipari immediately turned the attention to the upcoming NCAA Tournament.
“Our whole thing is how do we get the best seed we can get,” he said. “If that means win games, then just keep winning.”
ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi had Kentucky as a three-seed in the bracket he updated Friday. He also had Auburn as a four-seed. The only other SEC teams in Lunardi’s bracket were LSU and Florida as eight-seeds.
Lunardi had Mississippi State among the first four teams out of the field, and Arkansas among the next four failing to qualify.
As he has done in several previous years, Calipari dismissed the importance of the SEC Tournament.
“I know people get mad and our fans go there,” he said of the SEC Tournament, which will be March 11-15 in Nashville. “It’s almost an obligation because so many (UK fans) go to the tournament.”
As he has done previously, Calipari questioned the benefit of potentially playing three games in three days in the SEC Tournament.
“The reality of it is our season is about building toward March,” Calipari said. “Being prepared for every kind of team we could play (and) building every player on your team because you don’t know who must step up in a game.”
First, UK-Auburn
Auburn beat Kentucky 75-66 on Feb. 1.
“The difference was the offensive rebounding,” Calipari said in his postgame news conference. “And that came down to toughness.”
Auburn outrebounded UK 42-28. That equals the fifth-most lopsided rebounding disadvantage for UK in Calipari’s 11 seasons as coach. It’s UK’s worst beating on the boards since Florida had a 54-29 advantage on Feb. 4, 2017.
Auburn, which leads the SEC in offensive rebounds (14.1 per game in league play), had 17 offensive rebounds against UK.
Playing downhill
Kentucky-Auburn should mean a lot of drives to the basket.
Of Auburn’s guards, Calipari said, “They run downhill. We run downhill.”
That can mean a lot of fouls drawn. In the first game, Auburn made 33 of 44 free throws. That was the most shot against UK since Kansas made 30 of 47 on Jan. 30, 2016. And that game went into overtime.
The last 40-minute UK game that saw the opponent shoot more free throws came on Dec. 14, 2013. North Carolina made 26 of 45.
On his radio show Wednesday night, Calipari all but called for referees to make sure their whistles were in good shape.
“You got two driving teams that play aggressively,” he said. “We go at them. They go at us.”
Wiley-Richards
After the first game, Calipari said Auburn center Austin Wiley had “a field day” against Nick Richards. Wiley had a double-double: 12 points and 10 rebounds.
“The advantage they had (was) they used their strength-leverage inside to hurt us, and we have to figure out how we combat that,” Calipari said on the radio show. “We need Nick to have a good solid game. … Sometimes it’s just to negate the other guy.”
Wiley has had four double-doubles in the last eight games.
“Wiley’s been playing great,” said Calipari, who speculated that Wiley has had as many offensive rebounds as defensive rebounds. In SEC play, it’s close: 61 offensive, 78 defensive.
Key player
Former Auburn coach Sonny Smith said freshman Isaac Okoro is considered the Tigers’ best player.
“Because he’s so good defensively, and he can score offensively,” Smith said. “ Unselfish. Will not take a bad shot. Will not take many shots unless they are there.”
An injury sidelined Okoro for three games. Auburn lost two of the three.
History
Auburn Coach Bruce Pearl seems to like the incentive of making history. Auburn has never beaten Kentucky three straight times.
Auburn has beaten UK two straight times five times: 1967 and 1968, 1974 and 1975, 1987 and 1988, 1989 and 1990 and in the 2019 NCAA Tournament and earlier this season.
3:45?
On Saturday, CBS has a four and one-half hour window for college basketball starting at 1:30 p.m. EST.
CBS will televise Kansas-Kansas State starting at 1:30 p.m. EST. To fit the window, Kentucky-Auburn will follow beginning at 3:45 p.m. EST.
Etc.
Ian Eagle, Bill Raftery and sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson will call the game for CBS.
