Calipari on Kentucky skipping SEC Tournament: ‘We will not opt out’
Some college basketball coaches have wondered aloud about the wisdom of playing in conference tournaments the week before the NCAA Tournament in this year of the coronavirus pandemic.
Kentucky Coach John Calipari is not among them. Although he’s made no secret of his dislike of conference tournaments, he said Tuesday that UK will play in this year’s Southeastern Conference Tournament (assuming there is one).
“I can promise you we will not opt out,” Calipari said. “That’s not what I would do.”
If teams assured of an NCAA Tournament bid opted out, the NCAA would probably take away the automatic bid that goes to winning the league tournament, Calipari said.
“So why wouldn’t we do it every year: the top four or five teams opt out so we get one more team in (the NCAA Tournament),” the UK coach asked. “Either we all play or there will be a reason (to not play). And the reason would be the safety of the players and coaches.”
Players opt out?
Then there’s the idea of players opting out of the college season in order not to risk their professional futures. Calipari said he has spoken to UK players “many times” about not taking that course.
To make the point, he said he holds up Immanuel Quickley’s emergence as a pro prospect as a sophomore.
“He was not draftable after his freshman year,” Calipari said. “At the beginning of his sophomore year, if you told me he was going to be drafted, I’d tell you you’re crazy.”
Missouri wary
Missouri sounded wary about assuming victory given Kentucky’s 5-10 record.
“We’ll have to come out and play and try to take their confidence away early,” assistant coach Marco Harris-Stevens said. “Because once they get going, they’re a pretty good team.”
Calipari likes to say that playing Kentucky is every opponent’s Super Bowl. On Tuesday, he noted Georgia players’ excitement in beating UK on a layup in the final seconds.
But Missouri’s Xavier Pinson suggested his team had to guard against over-confidence.
“We’ve got to come in and not take the game lightly at all because of their record,” he said.
Go through ‘Tilly’
Missouri considers senior center Jeremiah Tilmon as the team’s main man. He’s coming off a 33-point, 11-rebound performance in the Tigers’ 102-98 overtime victory over TCU on Saturday. That was his second straight double-double, and fifth in the seven most recent games.
“He’s really the source of what we do,” Pinson said of Tilmon. “We’ve got to go through him. We go through ‘Tilly’ and get him active in the post early. That’s really our key to success. . . .
“Once he gets going, you know the doubles (double-teams) are coming. That opens up a lot of stuff for other people.”
Tilmon, who is listed at 6-foot-10 and 260 pounds, has had four double-doubles in Missouri’s seven SEC games.
“He’s been amazing since we started conference play,” Harris-Stevens said. “And I think for us to go, Jeremiah has to go.”
Or as Calipari summed it up, “They’ve got a big man who is a moose.”
The numbers suggest Kentucky would be wise to foul Tilmon and make him earn his points at the foul line rather than by dunking or scoring from the low post. He made seven of 15 free throws against TCU. That made him 10 of 26 on free throws in the last two games. He’s made only 23 of 43 in SEC games.
Allen-esque
UK fans no doubt remember Dontaie Allen’s starburst performance at Mississippi State in which he made seven of 11 three-point shots.
Pinson is coming off a similar performance. Against TCU, he made eight of 13 three-point shots and scored a career-high 36 points. The eight threes tied a Missouri record. The 36 points were the most by a Missouri player since 2006.
When asked about Pinson having a similarly spectacular encore against Kentucky, Harris-Stevens said, “You have to have balance, man. I hope he will. That’s a tough number to do again: 8-for-13.
“He just has to take his shots. If they’re falling, that’s good. If not, he’ll have to find another way to get guys involved.”
‘Extra-effort stuff’
Oscar Tshiebwe, the transfer “big” from West Virginia, has arrived on the UK campus. He will not travel to Missouri, and will begin practicing with the team later this week.
Tshiebwe, who is not eligible to play until next season, averaged 11.2 points and 9.3 rebounds as a freshman for West Virginia last season. He was averaging 8.5 points and 7.8 rebounds in 10 games this season before deciding to transfer.
“The thing I loved about him was how hard he worked (and) how hard he played,” Calipari said. “Everything was extra-effort stuff.
“I want him to go against our guys to try to bring some of that out of the guys we have.”
Etc.
Karl Ravech and Jimmy Dykes will call the game for ESPN2.
