Big picture vs. tight focus: A lot on the line for Kentucky, Ole Miss
Kentucky’s game at Ole Miss on Tuesday night features two teams perceived as needing to win next week’s Southeastern Conference Tournament in order to play in the NCAA Tournament. At least publicly, each is looking at the coveted double-bye in the SEC Tournament differently.
Kentucky, 8-14 overall and 7-8 in the SEC, is taking the staid play-’em-one-at-a-time approach.
When asked after Saturday’s loss to Florida to assess his team’s postseason prospects, UK Coach John Calipari pointedly said, “We’re worried about Mississippi. We’re not worried about that other stuff. We’ve got to take one game and try to get better.”
Meanwhile, on a teleconference Friday, Ole Miss Coach Kermit Davis spoke in big-picture terms.
“I consider this the postseason,” he said. “We’re in the postseason now. … Everybody’s fighting their way in it, and you’ve got to stay in the fight.”
The Rebels then lost 75-70 at Vanderbilt to fall to 13-10 overall and 8-8 in the SEC.
UK assistant coach Jai Lucas, who substituted for Calipari on Monday’s teleconference, spoke of Kentucky players not being overly discouraged by the loss to Florida.
“They have pretty good motivation right now,” Lucas said. “They haven’t folded. They haven’t stopped working or anything like that. …
“I think they still understand what we have ahead of us.”
The help that comes with a double-bye in the SEC Tournament has not been a point of discussion.
“The main thing is just try to win every game …,” Lucas said. “You also have to account for what the other teams do and how they play. … When you talk about it, it’s kind of a 50-50 thing.”
In terms of the double-bye, neither Kentucky nor Ole Miss controls its chances when in eighth and sixth place, respectively, going into the final week of play.
Davis suggested the topic does not need to be brought up.
“Our guys read,” he said. “They see (bracketologists) Joe Lunardi and Jerry Palm. They can follow the NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool).”
As Lucas said Kentucky players were motivated, so spoke Davis.
“We’ve always been a really good team to come to the gym with,” the Ole Miss coach said. “Our team is going to have to be ready. We’ve had spirited workouts.”
Pause that regresses
After Kentucky lost to Florida, Calipari dismissed the disruption of a midweek game canceled as a factor in his team “reverting.”
Lucas spoke of the week between games as a hindrance.
“It just throws you off (and) out of sync,” he said. “Especially a team like ours that’s kind of been up and down all year. When … you have a little bit of momentum, you kind of want to do everything to keep it going.”
In a zone
Calipari cited Florida’s zone defense as a reason Kentucky had a negative assist-to-turnover ratio (7-to-15) for the first time in five games.
“They did something that they really hadn’t done all year,” Lucas said of the Gators. “They played a completely different zone than we had put on film. … It made us stagnant.”
Lucas called Florida’s zone a “non-traditional 3-2. It was more of a matchup man-to-man.”
Ole Miss had gotten good mileage out of its 1-3-1.
“At different places the ball is caught, we can go man,” Davis said. “And at different places, we can go zone.”
The Ole Miss coach credited the zone as a factor in his teams at Middle Tennessee beating Michigan State in the 2016 NCAA Tournament and Minnesota in the 2017 NCAA Tournament.
“We were trying to find a way to play up in class,” Davis said of using a zone defense.
Davis added that Kentucky might benefit from having played against Florida’s zone.
The intent is to disrupt an opponent’s rhythm, said Davis, adding, “our guys have confidence in it.”
‘His team’
Senior guard Devontae Shuler is the main man for Ole Miss.
“He’s tried desperately to get our team into postseason play,” Davis said. “He feels like it’s his team.”
Davis called Shuler’s 1-for-15 shooting in a loss to Mississippi State “a blip.”
“But really over the last five weeks, he’s been playing as good as any guard in our league.”
Shuler leads Ole Miss in scoring (16.0 per game), assists (75), three-pointers (47 of 139) and minutes (33.4 per game).
“He’s a big key to their team in his senior year,” Lucas said. “When he plays well, they play well.
“You want to make him really inefficient.”
In the loss at Vanderbilt, Shuler scored 25 points. But he needed 20 shots (making 10) to do it.
“You kind of want him to have to do something like that,” Lucas said.
Etc.
Karl Ravech and Jimmy Dykes will call the game for ESPN.
Tuesday
Kentucky at Mississippi
When: 9 p.m.
TV: ESPN
Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1
Records: UK 8-14 (7-8 SEC), Mississippi 13-10 (8-8 SEC)
Series: UK leads 108-13
Last meeting: UK won 67-62 on Feb. 15, 2020, in Lexington
This story was originally published March 1, 2021 at 2:18 PM.
