With March Madness in mind, Kentucky sees ‘good side’ to 75-73 loss at Arkansas
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Game day: No. 18 Arkansas 75, No. 6 Kentucky 73
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Arkansas in Fayetteville, Ark.
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With the 75-73 loss at Arkansas on Saturday, Kentucky took one big step closer to not being the No. 1 seed in the Southeastern Conference Tournament. Since Auburn defeated Kentucky in the teams’ one meeting, a one-seed would likely be an impossibility for UK.
To which, John Calipari and his players more or less shrugged.
During the postgame news conference, they repeatedly gave the drama-filled game against Arkansas the perspective of how it can help Kentucky during March Madness.
For instance, point guards Sahvir Wheeler and TyTy Washington returned to action after having missed the last two games because of injuries. That they combined to make only eight of 25 shots led to a question about being rusty.
“Yeah, definitely,” said Wheeler, whose 5-for-13 shooting included making two three-pointers. “I feel TyTy and I had some of that rust when we first got into the game, especially in the first half.
“But after that, our play and our energy picked up in the second half.”
This led to “just getting into a rhythm felt like we were getting back to normal,” Wheeler added.
Not that Wheeler — and by proxy his teammates — dismissed the loss, which dropped Kentucky’s record to 23-6 overall and 12-4 in the SEC. Arkansas moved into a second-place tie with UK at 12-4.
“Obviously, a disappointing outcome,” Wheeler said. “Wish we could have won.
“On the good side, we’re both getting healthy and we’re both preparing for March.”
Calipari also hit that theme when assessing Kentucky’s chances of winning at least a share of the SEC championship for a 50th time. Noting the unbalanced league schedule, he dismissed its importance.
“We’re playing for something bigger than just a seed and the league championship,” he said.
For the fourth straight game, Kentucky fell behind by a double-digit margin in the first half. This time, Arkansas led 12-2 inside the first five minutes and twice extended the margin to 13 points before halftime.
In one of the recent games, a UK player dismissed the opponent’s fast start as nothing more than the zeal that comes with playing Kentucky. It would be countered.
While Kentucky indeed countered again, Calipari lamented this poor start.
“When the other guy hits first, it really affects your psyche,” he said. “It does. … You start swinging right away, you’re the tough guy. The other guy does (the swinging), you’re not the tough guy.”
Led by guard JD Notae, who scored 30 points, Arkansas was this tough guy.
“The way we started the game (showed) just unaggressiveness,” Calipari said. “And it puts a sad look on your face. You’re getting knocked around. They got every 50-50 ball.”
Calipari said he based the offensive win-or-lose responsibility on “big” Oscar Tshiebwe.
“After I saw the start of the game, I said, we’re throwing to Oscar every single time we can,” the UK coach said. “If you’re timid and don’t want to do stuff, throw it to him.”
Tshiebwe equaled a career-high 30 points and grabbed 18 rebounds. That meant a double-double for an 11th straight game and 23rd time this season.
“He came into the huddle and said, ‘Look, the guy (Arkansas “big” Jaylin Williams) can’t guard me,’” Calipari said. Typically, Tshiebwe is not so bold, the UK coach added.
That Kentucky outscored Arkansas 9-2 in the final three-plus minutes reduced UK’s halftime deficit to 34-28 and put a smile on Calipari’s face.
“I walked in (the locker room) at halftime laughing,” he said.
But Arkansas, which won for the 13th time in its last 14 games, did not wilt.
Calipari all but said the possession-by-possession game came down to one call. After Arkansas took a 71-70 lead with 1:22 left (the 15th lead change inside the final 15 minutes), Kentucky called time.
As planned, the inbound pass went to Keion Brooks. But he was called for elbowing the defender away before catching the ball.
Calipari said he would want to watch the tape. “It may have been the right call,” he said. “We’ll see.”
Whether the right call or not, Kentucky spoke of the loss as potentially valuable going forward.
“If we could have started how we finished, it could be easy for us today,” Tshiebwe said.
Not that UK’s big man saw an easy victory as a good thing.
“This is a great experience for us to help to tell us it’s not going to be easy,” Tshiebwe said. “We’ve got to go back to work.”
Next game
Mississippi at No. 6 Kentucky
When: 7 p.m.
TV: ESPN
This story was originally published February 26, 2022 at 6:26 PM.
