If Kentucky doesn’t start rising at Georgia, you can forget March Madness
Maybe Wednesday’s the night. Maybe it’s the night when Kentucky’s passes are crisp, its defense is unforgiving, its shots true. Maybe it’s the night when the flip gets switched. And stays that way. Maybe Georgia is the game.
“We have to break through at some point,” said UK Coach John Calipari on Tuesday.
After all, the clock is ticking. COVID-19 willing, 14 games remain in UK’s regular season. The Cats are 4-8. They are 3-2 in the SEC. Heading into Tuesday night’s college basketball schedule, UK was 96th in the NCAA NET computer rankings, a tool used by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee. It was 55th in Ken Pomeroy’s rankings, 56th in Jeff Sagarin’s computations. If March Madness was held in late January, Kentucky would be on the outside looking in. The far outside.
“The perfect thing for me to say is we don’t think about it, we’re taking one game at a time,” UK guard Davion Mintz said Tuesday. “But in all honesty, we do think about it.”
Said Calipari, “We’ve got to go on a run.”
A frustrated reader popped up in my inbox Tuesday wanting to know what Calipari had seen to make him believe his team could go on a run. Actually, the reader was more frustrated the media had not been more forceful in addressing the subject with the UK coach. “Illogical thinking,” he called it.
What do you want Calipari to say? The season’s over? We’re packing up the balls and heading home? See you next year? As the coach said after Saturday’s 66-59 loss at Auburn, and repeated Tuesday, he’ll keep trying, keep tweaking, keep twisting and turning until he hits on something that works and keeps working. That’s the hope.
He, and the BBN, believed he had done exactly that 10 days ago at Florida. Kentucky shot 55 percent. It dished 18 assists. It celebrated Keion Brooks’ return by dominating the second half on the way to a 76-58 win over the Gators. Mystery solved. Right?
Wrong. Alabama promptly punched the Cats in the mouth last week. A Kentucky loss at Rupp Arena is a rare occurrence. A 20-point home loss is beyond rare. Yet that’s what happened. The Tide brought a truckload of A-game for an 85-65 romp. Its confidence shaken yet again, UK followed up with another dreadful offensive performance in a 66-59 loss at Auburn last Saturday.
Much was made of Calipari’s postgame comment Saturday in which the coach said, “I want to win every game we coach, but I’m not trying to take anyone’s heart away.” Fans took it that Calipari was playing favorites, that he was playing struggling players (i.e. Brandon Boston) while leaving productive players (i.e. Dontaie Allen) on the bench.
Truth is, coaches play favorites. They play the players they believe are the best players, the ones that will help them win, if not that game then in the future. Player development. And Calipari has always coached December, January and February with March in mind.
“Does the cream rise here?” Calipari said Tuesday. “That’s going to happen now.”
If so, the rising must begin at promptly 7 p.m. Wednesday in Athens or there may be no March. No Madness anyway. Tom Crean’s Bulldogs are 1-4 in the SEC. They’re 100th in the NET rankings. Kentucky has won four straight at Stegeman Coliseum. Georgia should be UK’s slump buster.
Then Saturday, the schedule begins to toughen considerably. LSU visits Rupp before Kentucky seeks revenge in Tuscaloosa next Tuesday. After that comes a home game against No. 5 Texas in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge followed by a road game at No. 19 Missouri and a home game against No. 6 Tennessee.
“If (we don’t break through) Wednesday, then it’d better be this weekend,” said Calipari.
Maybe it’ll happen. Maybe we’ll see the type of basketball we haven’t seen yet on a consistent basis from this team. Maybe it all starts Wednesday. Maybe it all starts with Georgia. Maybe.
This story was originally published January 19, 2021 at 3:41 PM with the headline "If Kentucky doesn’t start rising at Georgia, you can forget March Madness."
