It might be too late, but watch out — Kentucky is clearly on a roll
Here they come, these Kentucky Wildcats. It might not quite be in the nick of time, but John Calipari’s Cats have finally pulled themselves together, earned some confidence, latched onto the Big Mo (momentum) and transformed into the team that way-back-when everybody thought it could be.
Saturday brought confirmation. Saturday brought the return game with the Tennessee Volunteers, a team ranked 19th in the nation, a team that spanked the Cats by 11 points two weeks ago at Rupp Arena. Saturday, at Thompson-Boling, the tables got turned. And then some. Kentucky 70, Tennessee 55.
Yes, the Cats opened hotter than those blow torches trying to melt the ice outside. Davion “Too Hot To Touch” Mintz went 5-of-5 from three-point land in the first half. (“I was burning at the beginning,” he said later.) Isaiah Jackson was snatching rebounds, running the floor, and scoring at the rim. Jacob Toppin was poppin’ off the bench once again as UK built its lead to 45-30 at intermission.
But defense was the real difference in this one. Kentucky’s defense. Grade: A+ defense. In UT’s romp at Rupp, Rick Barnes’ Vols had no trouble “bullying” (as Cal put it) the Cats to the basket. Tennessee freshman Keon Johnson scored 27 points without benefit of a made three-pointer. Fellow rookie Jaden Springer scored 23 points. Up 10 in the second half, Kentucky lost 82-71.
There was none of that this time around. UK defenders made the lane a no-drive zone. And with nowhere to go, the Vols hoisted three-point shots. Many three-point shots. Many missed three-point shots. Second half: Tennessee was 1-of-12 from beyond the arc to finish 6-of-22 for the game. Johnson ended up just 4-of-14 from the floor; Springer 2-of-11. After shooting 47.1 percent in Lexington — the second-best field goal percentage by a Kentucky opponent all season — the Vols shot just 30.8 percent on their own home floor and fell to 15-6 overall, 8-6 in the conference.
Meanwhile, Kentucky shot a miserable 20.7 percent the second half and still held the Vols to a 25-25 draw over the final 20 minutes to improve to 7-7 in SEC play with its third straight win. Simply put, it was UK’s best win of the season.
“Can you imagine where we were four weeks ago,” Calipari said.
Credit the coach for using the ice storm in the Commonwealth to bring his team down south to Tennessee for a week of (a) bonding and (b) winning. Sometimes you just need to get away. After Wednesday’s 82-78 win over Vanderbilt in Nashville, the Cats traveled directly to Knoxville where they held a spirited Thursday practice — “They were excited to get back in the gym,” said the coach — while mapping out the game plan for Saturday.
Not that long ago, game plans were all just a lot of wasted energy and time. Time after time, Calipari complained about his team not following instructions, about players running the wrong play out of timeouts, or going the wrong way on defense. Not now. Guys are listening. Guys are learning. Guys are executing.
Calipari then: “I don’t know what to tell you.”
Calipari now: “This is a smart team.”
“We believe in one another and we believe in the coaching staff,” said Keion Brooks after cleaning the glass for a game-high 14 rebounds. “We know we need each other to win and we’re relying on each other to get it done.”
Is it too little too late? The Cats are 8-13, after all, with just three scheduled regular-season games remaining. Even Calipari admitted Saturday, “We may be running out of runway” before quickly adding this is now the 2020-21 Kentucky basketball team he thought it could be all along.
At least, with the SEC Tournament (March 10-14 in Nashville) looming as an all-or-nothing endeavor, the Cats are picking up steam. They have the Big Mo.
Said Brooks, “Let’s keep it rolling.”
