SEC’s strong showing in SEC/Big 12 Challenge could help UK’s desperate cause
The SEC got the better of the Big 12 in their annual basketball challenge, winning five of the nine games played Saturday between the two conferences.
And yet, as fitting of the season, Kentucky lost by not playing.
Forced to cancel Saturday night’s game against visiting Texas because of COVID-19 issues inside the UK program, the Wildcats missed a chance to register a much-needed win over the No. 5 ranked team in the AP Top 25 as they somehow try to place themselves in position to make the NCAA Tournament.
“It was their only chance,” ESPN’s Jay Bilas told the Herald-Leader’s Jerry Tipton.
Kentucky does have other chances against ranked teams. Depending on the results of the program’s 48-hour pause, the Cats are scheduled to play No. 12 Missouri on Tuesday night in Columbia. Then Saturday, No. 18 Tennessee is scheduled to visit Rupp Arena for the first of two meetings between the Cats and Vols.
Based on their SEC/Big 12 results, both are poised to move up in the rankings. Missouri rallied late to beat visiting TCU 102-98 in overtime on Saturday. Tennessee dismantled fading Kansas 80-61 in Knoxville.
Missouri trailed the Horned Frogs 82-70 with 4:48 to play before Xavier Pinson caught fire. The junior guard made three three-pointers in the final three minutes, including a three with just three seconds left to tie the score at 89 and force overtime. From there, Cuonzo Martin’s club completed the comeback by outscoring TCU 13-9.
Pinson finished with 36 points. Mizzou center Jeremiah Tilmon contributed 33 points and 11 rebounds. Kobe Brown grabbed 13 rebounds. And Missouri made 11 of 23 three-pointers on the way to shooting 57.4 percent from the floor. The veteran-ladened Tigers will be tough for John Calipari’s young Cats to handle Tuesday.
Same with Tennessee on Saturday. The Vols went through a brief slump two weeks ago, losing back-to-back games to Florida (75-49) on the road and Missouri (73-64) at home. Rick Barnes’ team squeezed out a 56-53 win over Mississippi State last Tuesday before easily handling the once-formidable Jayhawks.
Tennessee shot 52.8 percent from the floor, while holding Kansas to 37.7 percent shooting. Yves Pons scored 17 points. Josiah Jordan James collected 11 rebounds while making three of his five three-point attempts. As a team, Tennessee was 8-for-13 from beyond the three-point stripe.
With the win, Tennessee moved to 10th in the latest NET computer rankings used by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee. Missouri is 30th. But the team to watch might be Florida, which moved from 27th to 18th in the NET thanks to its 85-80 win over West Virginia in Morgantown. WVU entered the game ranked 11th by the AP.
After its 76-58 home loss to Kentucky back on Jan. 9, the Gators seemed no factor in the SEC race. After all, Mike White had lost his best player, Keyontae Johnson, who collapsed on the floor Dec. 12 against Florida State and was reportedly diagnosed with myocarditis. Johnson is sitting out the season. But after a 72-69 loss at Mississippi State on Jan. 16, the Gators have played like a different team.
They trounced visiting Tennessee by 26, defeated Georgia 92-84 in Athens, held off Vanderbilt 78-71, then took down the Mountaineers. Colin Castleton, a transfer from Michigan, has blossomed. The 6-foot-11 junior scored 21 points, grabbed seven rebounds and blocked five shots in the win at WVU.
UK welcomes the Gators to Rupp on Feb. 27. COVID-19 willing, that is. The deeper we get into this 2020-21 college basketball season, the trickier things become. There is serious talk the postseason conference tournaments could be scrapped in an effort to make sure teams are coronavirus-free, if that’s possible, for the NCAA Tournament.
Sitting in a 5-10 hole, Kentucky has nine games remaining, 10 if the postponed meeting with South Carolina can be played. And if John Calipari’s club can’t straighten out issues that have plagued it all season — scoring points being Job 1 — it matters not who it plays. But it missed a chance when it couldn’t play Texas.
Next game
Kentucky at Missouri
9 p.m. Tuesday (ESPN or ESPN2)
