UK’s flying high, but Calipari wonders if there’s time to reach the runway
This season more than ever, John Calipari is tasked with transforming a collection of heralded players into a cohesive unit. He annually uses the analogy of landing an aircraft to describe the inherent tension with forming a team in time to make a run in the NCAA Tournament.
The point: Kentucky does not want to touch down short of the runway (aka March Madness).
Even with the victory over No. 19 Tennessee on Saturday, Calipari acknowledged that the Big Blue Nation might need to get in crash position.
“We may be running out of runway,” he said. “But we’re becoming the team that we wanted to see.”
By defeating Tennessee, Kentucky improved its record to 8-13.
“I wish we were just halfway through our season,” Calipari said. “Because they’ve shown unbelievable growth.”
To play in the NCAA Tournament, Kentucky is widely believed to need to get the automatic bid that comes with winning the Southeastern Conference Tournament. That would require three or four straight victories. That might seem more achievable since UK has beaten Auburn, Vanderbilt and Tennessee in its last three games.
“Yeah, that’s huge for us,” Davion Mintz said of the precedent set. “Especially with everything we’ve been through already this season. To kind of go on a roll, especially at this time right now.
“That’s huge. And that’s exactly what we needed: to gather some momentum toward (March).”
Meanwhile, Keion Brooks advocated thinking no further ahead than the next game.
“We’re not worried about that right now,” he said of the postseason. “This week was unique for us, being on the road the whole week. We had to be professional and get it done.”
‘Unselfish guys’
Calipari continued to go with the players who were performing well.
“If the guy in front of you is really playing well, you have to wait till you get your chance,” Calipari said. “And prove you should be playing more. We’ve got a couple guys in that boat.”
That was an apparent reference to Lance Ware, who did not play, and Dontaie Allen, who was limited to four seconds shy of two minutes of playing time.
“I’ll tell you, the guys on the floor fought like crazy,” Calipari said.
Davion Mintz spoke of an unselfish attitude on the UK team.
“With everything we’ve gone through, it’s great we still have that attitude going into March,” he said.
Geese and buffalo
Calipari spoke of the difference between geese and buffalo when asked about how several Kentucky players waxed and waned in the game.
Isaiah Jackson scored 13 of his 16 points in the first half. Mintz made five of five three-point shots in the first half, then missed all five of his second-half shots (two from beyond the arc).
“I told teammates, I was, like, my gun is jammed,” Mintz said.
Olivier Sarr and Brooks filled the vacuum. Sarr scored all 10 of his points and grabbed three of his seven rebounds in the second half. Brooks had seven of his 10 points and eight of his career-high 14 rebounds after halftime. Incidentally, Brooks’ previous high of 11 rebounds came in the game against Tennessee two weeks earlier.
“That’s what this team does,” Calipari said of teammates compensating for each other. “When you’re a team, you fly like geese (in formation). … Or you can be buffalo. And when one jumps over the edge, they’ll all go with him.”
‘Mastermind’
When asked about UK’s upward trend, Mintz called Calipari “the mastermind of this cruise ship that we have.”
Jekyll and Hyde
Two weeks ago, Tennessee’s 82-71 victory over Kentucky marked only the 17th time in Rupp Arena history UK lost at home by a double-digit margin.
Then Kentucky won the rematch by its second largest margin in a SEC game this season This brought to mind SEC Network analyst Dane Bradshaw calling the Vols a Jekyll and Hyde act earlier this season.
The high point came in a 20-point victory at Missouri. Afterward, Yves Pons said, “We have a chance to be great. … A team that can go to the national championship.”
Tennessee’s take
“That we were beaten by just 15 (points) is a surprise,” Tennessee Coach Rick Barnes said. “We were that bad. We got stagnant (on offense). We play better when we move it and get going.”
Barnes questioned his team’s mental preparation.
“The first half, we played like we practiced (Friday). (Practice) was only 30 minutes, that’s the frustrating part. So much of this game is mental, and the mental part is not there yet.”
A wrist injury sidelined Tennessee sophomore Josiah-Jordan James for a second straight game. He had a double-double (10 points, 10 rebounds) against the Cats in Rupp Arena.
