On dream night in Rupp Arena, Kentucky ‘regains’ its indispensable player
John Calipari used a post-practice video session Thursday to essentially file a basketball missing persons report.
With No. 5 Kentucky coming off an upset home loss to LSU and about to face No. 1 Tennessee, Cal put an all-points bulletin out for “the absent” Ashton Hagans.
“It was video of our North Carolina game,” Calipari said of the contest in which the freshman point guard essentially turned the arc of UK’s season with a stellar eight-steal performance. “Do you remember how Ashton played that game … diving, tipping, fell into the stands, the bench, and then came down and stole the ball?
“What I basically said — we watched nine clips of (Hagans) — ‘Now, we don’t have this guy anymore. I don’t know where this guy went, but if we ever get him back we would be really good.’”
On what was a dream Saturday night in Rupp Arena, the Wildcats rediscovered their indispensable player and Kentucky was actually better than “really good.”
With Hagans expertly directing Kentucky on both ends of the floor, the Wildcats dismantled the No. 1 Volunteers 86-69 before a raucous crowd of 24,467.
“Plain and simple, they beat us every way they can beat you,” Tennessee Coach Rick Barnes said afterward.
One would expect that blowing out the nation’s top-rated team would require a total team effort — and that’s what the No. 5 Wildcats (21-4, 10-2 SEC) delivered.
Continuing his recent trend of exceptional play, Kentucky power forward PJ Washington (23 points, five rebounds, two blocked shots) outproduced reigning SEC Player of the Year Grant Williams (16 points, eight rebounds).
UK swingman Keldon Johnson (19 points, three of six three-point shots) showed the form expected to make him a first-round pick in the 2019 NBA Draft.
Kentucky shooting guard Tyler Herro surprised everyone with a 15-point, 13-rebound double-double.
Wildcats post player Reid Travis (11 points, eight rebounds, two blocks) used his defensive muscle to force UT’s Williams off the block and, in doing so, allowed Washington to concentrate on his offense.
Yet, the guy who made all that good play possible was Hagans.
After three straight subpar games, the Cartersville, Ga., product delivered an indication on Tennessee’s first offensive possession that “he was back.”
Tennessee dumped the ball into the 6-7, 236-pound Williams on the block. As the UT star worked against Travis’ resistance, Hagans dropped down and dug the ball away from him.
A tone was set.
For the game, Hagans finished with nine points, seven assists, two steals and only one turnover.
Though Tennessee point guard Jordan Bone put up good individual numbers (19 points, six assists, 8-for-13 field-goal shooting), Barnes said the offensive precision and unselfishness that has characterized UT (23-2, 11-1 SEC) in 2018-19 was nowhere to be seen in Rupp Arena.
A big part of that was “the return” of Hagans.
“Basically, he’s the best part of our defense. He starts it,” UK’s Washington said. “Without him, we are not really good defensively.”
Said Kentucky’s Johnson: “Ashton is such an important piece to our team. We just know, when he’s at the top of his game, we are a very good team.”
In the three games prior to Saturday night, Hagans (who was not available for post-game interviews) was not only not at the top of his game. He was not very good on either end of the floor.
He had six turnovers in the first half against South Carolina. He struggled to stay in front of Mississippi State point guard Lamar Peters.
UK won both of those games anyway, but things reached a nadir when LSU lead guard Tremont Waters controlled the second half Tuesday night as the Tigers rallied from an eight-point deficit to win by two at the buzzer.
“For two games, he went downhill,” Calipari said of Hagans, “then it affected us the last game. And, in this game, he came back.”
There are only six games left in the Kentucky regular season. One of those, on March 2, will be a return match with what figures to be an angry Tennessee in Knoxville.
But after the Wildcats walloped No. 1 before a giddy Rupp Arena crowd, one thing seems crystal clear.
When Hagans does not perform at his best, the Wildcats get outscored by double digits in the second half (42-31 at Mississippi State and 41-31 vs. LSU) and look nothing close to a Final Four team.
When Hagans does play well, Kentucky can beat North Carolina on a neutral floor, decisively best Louisville on its home court and run the nation’s top-rated team out of Rupp Arena.
If Kentucky can keep from “losing” Ashton Hagans again, it has every chance to make March memorable.
This story was originally published February 17, 2019 at 12:39 AM.
