After fighting its way to the top of the SEC standings, can Kentucky stay there?
Let’s hear it for the bricklayers, the team that can miss 20 of 22 three-point shots, can commit more turnovers than assists, can have its best foul shooter miss not one, but two free throws and still somehow, someway find a way to win.
And now, with three weeks to go in this mess of a regular college basketball season, the Kentucky Wildcats find themselves atop the SEC standings, the last team standing after another wild, wild weekend.
On the same Saturday the Cats outlasted the Ole Miss Rebels 67-62 in Rupp Arena, LSU suffered an 88-82 road loss to an Alabama inspired by Herbert Jones grabbing 17 rebounds and making two key one-hand free throws despite playing with a cast on his broken left wrist. After that, Auburn Coach Bruce Pearl nearly suffered a stroke watching his Tigers lose 85-73 to a Missouri team that suddenly figured out the ball goes in the basket.
Result: Kentucky is 10-2 in league play. Auburn and LSU are 9-3. Sneaking up, ready to pounce, are Florida and South Carolina at 8-4. Mississippi State is 7-5. The remaining eight members are 6-6 or worse, either riding the NCAA bubble or hoping to keep their heads above water for an NIT bid.
But back to the Cats. We might not know anything about basketball, as our friend Mr. Calipari keeps saying, but we have noticed a recent trend. Game after game, the Wildcats tie themselves to the railroad tracks, then find a way to wiggle to safety just before the train arrives.
On Jan. 18, the Cats trailed the Razorbacks by three with 7:15 left at a deafening Bud Walton Arena, then rallied for a 73-66 win. On Jan. 25, UK squeezed out a 76-74 overtime win at Texas Tech. On Jan. 29 in Rupp, the Cats trailed lowly Vanderbilt by seven (35-28) at the half, but they rallied for a 71-62 win. On Feb. 11 in Nashville, the Cats trailed the Commodores again at the half (36-27) and again rallied to win (78-64).
Saturday, Ole Miss rolled into Rupp carrying a three-game win streak. And not just any three. South Carolina, Florida and Mississippi State had fallen to Kermit Davis’ team. Breein Tyree, the Rebels’ star guard, had morphed into some sort to superhero, scoring an eye-popping 101 points over the three-game in streak.
Tyree scored 19 points on Saturday. He had to work, too, going six of 16 from the floor. The senior also missed the front end of two key one-and-one free throw situations in the final 57 seconds. “Very unusual,” Davis said afterward.
Meanwhile, Kentucky’s offense was something of a falling rock zone. The Cats went 2-for-22 from three-point range. They shot just 39 percent from the field. Immanuel Quickley, the nation’s second-best free throw shooter at 92.5 percent heading into the weekend, missed two foul shots for the first time all season, going eight of 10 at the line.
All of this led to a plot line in which Ole Miss led 47-40 with 10:45 remaining. Ah, but that was nothing new for these Cats. And the Calipari mantra of “fight and finish” has stuck. Kentucky keeps fighting its way back from deficits and finding a way to finish. That’s eight UK wins in the last nine games.
Now the Cats find themselves alone in first place as they board a charter Monday for Tuesday night’s showdown with LSU in Baton Rouge. Will Wade’s Tigers are in a skid, having lost three of their last four. All three defeats came on the road — 99-90 at Vanderbilt; 91-90 in overtime at Auburn; 88-82 at Alabama. Key stat: The Tigers are 13-1 in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. Tuesday’s game is in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
“The rest of the way, whew,” Calipari said on Saturday.
Getting to the top is one thing, staying there is something else.
Next game
No. 12 Kentucky at No. 25 LSU
9 p.m. Tuesday (ESPN)
