Don’t be mad, be glad about the good things Kentucky did against Arkansas
A basketball battleship with more wins than any other team in the history of the sport, that owns 49 conference championships and eight national titles and more hardware than any oversized trophy case can hold, doesn’t normally need moral victories.
Except Kentucky basketball in the year of our pandemic 2020-21, that is, which got one of the moral variety Tuesday night and needed it. To be sure, it would have much preferred an actual victory. Through circumstances inside and outside their control, the Wildcats have but five of those this season. The 81-80 home loss to Arkansas was the seventh in their last eight games, seventh in 11 SEC games and 13th loss overall.
And yet, there on the postgame Zoom session was Kentucky Coach John Calipari, a day before his 62nd birthday, telling the media, “It’s hard for me to be mad.”
Disappointed? Yes. Frustrated? You bet. Mad? Nope. Despite yet another defeat, Calipari’s ever-struggling club did some things, especially down the stretch, things it had failed to do previously, even if ultimately those things didn’t produce the desired outcome.
Start with three-point shooting. One of America’s worst three-point shooting teams, Kentucky actually made 14 of 26 three-point shots (53.8 percent) against the Razorbacks, including 10 of 18 in the second half. You have to reach back to March 1, 2012, to find the last time the Wildcats made that many three-point shots in a game. (Mark Fox and the Georgia Bulldogs were the victims of a 15-for-27 three-point parade.)
Tuesday, Brandon Boston was 4-of-5 from beyond the arc. The 7-foot Oliver Sarr was 3-of-5. Daivon Mintz was 3-of-7. Jacob Toppin had not made a three all season, missing all five of his tries. Tuesday, he was 2-for-2.
“Finally guys threw daggers,” Calipari said.
Better still, those daggers arrived at crunch time, the point of previous repeated failures. This night, the Cats clawed back from a dozen down (72-60) with 6:10 left. Boston hit a three-point shot, followed by a Sarr three-point shot to cut the Razorbacks’ lead in half. When Sarr nailed another three with 2:12 left, Arkansas’ lead was 76-73. When Boston sank a three at the 27-second mark, the visitors’ lead was 78-77. And when Mintz joined the three-ball party, Kentucky had the lead, 80-79, with 12 seconds left.
Alas, the home team couldn’t hold it, thanks to a whistle after an Arkansas missed shot with 4.3 seconds remaining. Toppin was called for a questionable foul — at least Calipari questioned it, vigorously. Jalen Tate, a grad transfer from NKU, stepped to the line and coolly converted the pair of free throws to put Arkansas back in front.
Having called timeout between foul shots, Kentucky hurried the ball up the floor for the final shot, only to have Arkansas’ darting Davonte Davis intercept a Sarr pass at midcourt. Starr stopped, and hung his head. His coach, however, was not so downcast.
“That’s the best we’ve finished a game,” Calipari said. “So like, I can’t be that upset.”
Indeed, a lesser team might have thrown in its blue towel by now. Kentucky’s odds of making the NCAA Tournament are fantastical at best, non-existent at worst. Winning the SEC Tournament in Nashville (March 10-14) isn’t UK’s best chance at qualifying for March Madness, it’s the Cats’ only chance. (If there is an SEC Tournament.) And at 5-13, the NIT appears a long shot, even if Kentucky wanted to participate in such an event during COVID-19. (If there is an NIT.)
So what do the Cats have to play for the rest of the way? Pride, for one thing. And growth. And experience. And, most of all, the satisfaction that hard work in a time of adversity might produce a positive ending to what has been one long migraine of a campaign.
“We can’t worry about the losses,” Boston said Tuesday. “We just have to keep working hard every day.”
Working in hopes Tuesday’s moral victory leads to real ones. Sooner rather than later. Even at Kentucky.
Next game
Auburn at Kentucky
When: 1 p.m. Saturday
TV: CBS-27
