Attention (some) UK basketball fans: You now have the team you’ve been calling for
There is a segment of the Big Blue Nation that has never been all-in on Kentucky basketball’s one-and-done era.
That group of UK fans should be relishing the 2019-20 Wildcats.
After a week in which the Cats were tested twice in Southeastern Conference play and survived each, one thing seems clear:
To an unusual degree for a John Calipari-era Kentucky team, the current Wildcats are heavily reliant on their — wait for it — veteran players.
No. 14 UK (12-3, 3-0 SEC) staved off a plucky Alabama (8-7, 2-1 SEC) 76-67 before an almost-capacity crowd of 20,407 in Rupp Arena on Saturday afternoon.
Just as happened in Kentucky’s come-from-behind 78-69 win at Georgia on Tuesday night in the SEC road opener for the Wildcats, UK veterans carried the Cats home.
Boosted by the clutch shooting of sophomore Immanuel Quickley (19 points, including two cold-blooded, late-game three-pointers); the all-around game of soph Ashton Hagans (15 points, nine rebounds, nine assists); and another double-double from junior Nick Richards (13 points, 11 rebounds with five blocked shots, too), Kentucky got 80.3 percent of its points Saturday from college veterans.
On Tuesday night in Athens, UK vets accounted for 70.5 percent of the Wildcats’ scoring.
For those Kentucky backers who have yearned for the days of getting to see players develop while wearing the UK uniform, this season has been throwback.
A season ago, Quickley never really got untracked. The 6-foot-3, 188-pound product of Havre de Grace, Md., made only 37.2 percent of his shots and averaged a pedestrian 5.2 points a game for UK.
This year’s Quickley is a different guy.
Over Kentucky’s past four games, the guard is averaging 18.8 points. In the past three contests, Quickley has made 16 of 29 shots and 12 of 17 three-pointers.
“Steaming hot,” Quickley joked when asked how hot he is right now. “If you touch me, you might burn.”
In a more serious vein, Quickley (13.3 points, 3.6 rebounds, 1.9 assists for the season) said having a prior year of college hoops experience has taught him how to prepare for games more effectively.
The UK guard said he watches video of last season studying his former teammate, shooting guard Tyler Herro.
“I’ve kind of been put in the same poistion,” Quickley said. “(So I’m watching) the reads (Herro) makes, the pocket passes off of down screens, the pull-ups he takes, when to do that.”
The benefits of being a second-year college student are not just in Rupp Arena, Quickley said.
“I know where all my classes are,” he said. “I know time management. I know when I need to be places. (I am) just more comfortable, on and off the floor.”
Hagans (13.1 points, 4.3 rebounds, 7.3 assists) is back as Kentucky’s starting point guard for a second straight year. Since the Calipari era began in 2009-10, this is only the second time UK returned its starting “quarterback.”
Experience “helps out a lot,” Hagans said. “I can say that from going through it. You’re with the guys you were playing with last year and that team was a lot closer. The four guys that came back plus (graduate transfer) Nate (Sestina) added onto it, we’re just trying to get better talking on the court and off the court with each other so we can make this team better.”
In his third season at Kentucky, Richards (13.0 points, 7.7 rebounds) has been utterly transformed from the player who scored 4.5 points per game his first two years. So well is the 6-11, 247-pound product of Kingston, Jamaica, playing, UK’s Calipari noted he even ran an out-of-bounds play to get the big man a corner jumper.
“He missed it,” Calipari said, “but I’m feeling comfortable he can do that.”
Of UK’s returning veterans, only power forward EJ Montgomery (7.3 points, 5.8 rebounds) has yet to take a substantial step upward in his play this season.
The 6-10, 228-pound sophomore made a positive contribution Saturday, however, with eight points, six rebounds and a blocked shot in 24:39 of game action.
“The guys I played with last year are telling me to just keep going, keep competing and go out there and have fun,” Montgomery said. “I feel like I took a step forward (vs. Alabama).”
Other than the enhanced fan experience of getting to follow UK players for multiple seasons, Kentucky backers can also ruminate on this factor about their relatively-experienced team.
The last four national title teams have combined to start four seniors, four redshirt juniors, eight true juniors, a redshirt sophomore, a redshirt freshmen — and only two true freshmen.
In a year when college basketball’s national title seems truly anyone’s for the taking, the experience profile of Kentucky’s key players looks a little more like that of the squads that have been winning the recent national championships.
Next game
No. 14 Kentucky at South Carolina
6:30 p.m. Wednesday (SEC Network)
This story was originally published January 11, 2020 at 5:16 PM.
