SEC title or not, Calipari sees Kentucky as one of country’s best teams
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Game day: No. 16 Tennessee 76, No. 4 Kentucky 63
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Tuesday night’s game between Kentucky and Tennessee at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tenn.
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By losing at Tennessee on Tuesday, Kentucky fell into a second-place tie with the Volunteers at 10-3 in the Southeastern Conference regular-season standings. First-place Auburn had a chance to take a two-game lead with five games to play by defeating visiting Vanderbilt on Wednesday.
UK Coach John Calipari downplayed the significance of the SEC race.
“I’m not worried about it because everybody’s schedule is so different,” he said. “Some schedules are way heavier than others. …
“We’re one of the better teams in the country. And that’s who we are. Now we’ve got to go play that way.”
Calipari saw “tough ones” ahead with upcoming games against Alabama on Saturday, then against LSU and at Arkansas next week.
Going into Tuesday’s games, that trio had the fourth-best (LSU), fifth-best (Alabama) and sixth-best (Arkansas) NET rankings among SEC teams.
Tennessee saw this week as pivotal. After beating No. 4 Kentucky, the Vols play at No. 23 Arkansas on Saturday.
“This is a really big week. … ,” Josiah-Jordan James said Monday. “The next game against Kentucky is the biggest game of our season. And then looking forward (to play) against Arkansas this weekend, it will be another really big test.”
James lumped the Vols with UK and Arkansas as teams with similar objectives in the remainder of the regular season.
“(Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas) are really fighting for that second-place spot right now,” he said of the SEC’s regular-season race. “So, we will see who comes out on top in the end.”
Steady Eddie?
Kellan Grady’s consistency has inspired Calipari to anoint him with the nickname “Steady Eddie.”
But after scoring double-digit points in seven straight games, Grady had only six at Tennessee. He did not take his first shot until about four minutes remained in the first half.
“They were all over him … ,” Calipari said of the Vols’ defenders. “Like, he could not get himself open. That is he’s working harder than you. You’re working to get open, and he’s working to stop you from getting open.”
Cameo roles
After not playing in the last three games and six of the last 10, Dontaie Allen played 12 seconds.
And after not playing in three of the last five games (and logging three minutes in the other two), Bryce Hopkins played 70 seconds.
“I wasn’t angry with Dontaie or Bryce,” Calipari said of the players’ cameo roles. “They got beat on backdoors where they stopped playing. … They haven’t played that much. I was throwing them out there just hoping maybe they could give us something. And they couldn’t.
“And how could you expect them to. I haven’t played them that much.”
Oscar No. 1
Oscar Tshiebwe headed the list of the top 10 candidates for national player of the year posted on the NCAA.com website Tuesday.
“His numbers are ridiculous,” NCAA.com’s Andy Katz said on a podcast. “And that’s why I firmly believe he is, right now, the national player of the year.”
The other players on the list compiled by Katz are 2. Johnny Davis (Wisconsin), 3. Ochai Agbaji (Kansas), 4. Kofi Cockburn (Illinois), 5. EJ Liddell (Ohio State), 6. Keegan Murray (Iowa), 7. Jabari Smith (Auburn), 8. Drew Timme (Gonzaga), 9. Jaden Ivey (Purdue) and 10. Bennedict Mathurin (Arizona).
Of Smith, Katz said, “his numbers have not been, like, crazy. But his ability to alter shots, to force other teams to cover him in a variety of ways has basically ensured that Auburn is going to be near the top of the SEC and in the country.”
Tshiebwe posted his eighth straight double-double (and 20th of the season) by scoring 13 points and grabbing 15 rebounds against Tennessee.
Star-crossed?
Counting CJ Fredrick’s leg injury, Kentucky has not had its entire team available for any game this season.
Not counting Fredrick, UK has had seven players miss games because of injury or illness. TyTy Washington led this dubious category by twice being sidelined. He tried to play at Tennessee, but he went to the bench after logging only 12-plus minutes.
When asked Monday how this rash of injuries played on the minds of UK coaches, associate to the head coach James “Bruiser” Flint said with a chuckle, “I don’t know that it plays on any minds at all as long as we get them back.”
NET
Going into Tuesday’s play, Kentucky, Auburn and Tennessee were the only three SEC teams that had not lost a game outside Quad 1. UK and Auburn had records of 16-0 in those games. Tennessee was 14-0.
Most games
Tennessee “big” John Fulkerson contributed 14 points and eight rebounds in his 155th college game. That’s a record for an SEC player.
Ex-Cat Darius Miller is second on that list with 152 games. Another former UK player, Wayne Turner, is tied for third at 151 games.
This story was originally published February 16, 2022 at 2:09 AM.
