Five things you need to know from UK’s 69-62 SEC Tournament loss to Tennessee
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Game day: No. 9 Tennessee 69, No. 5 Kentucky 62
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Tennessee at the SEC Tournament in Tampa, Fla.
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Five things you need to know from the No. 3-seed Kentucky Wildcats’ 69-62 loss to the No. 2-seed Tennessee Volunteers in an SEC Tournament semifinals men’s basketball game at Amalie Arena (basketball capacity 20,500) in Tampa, Fla., on Saturday:
1. Rick Barnes has Kentucky’s number. With Tennessee’s victory, Rick Barnes now stands 10-7 as UT head man against Kentucky. Overall, Barnes is 11-9 vs. the Wildcats.
For the second time in the past four seasons, Barnes has beaten Kentucky in the SEC Tournament semifinals.
The UT head man designed a masterful defensive game plan that used Tennessee’s post depth and length to frustrate Kentucky star Oscar Tshiebwe. Meanwhile, Tennessee’s quick backcourt was able to harry UK into horrid (see below) three-point shooting.
In all of UK basketball history, the only head men with more wins over the Cats than Barnes now has are 1. Dale Brown 18; 2. Billy Donovan 17; 3. Bob Knight, Ray Mears 15; 5. Roy Skinner 14; 6, Dean Smith 13; 7. Kevin Stallings 12.
Barnes is now tied with Don DeVoe and Wimp Sanderson with 11 wins against UK.
On Sunday against Tournament Cinderella Texas A&M, Barnes will try to lead UT to its fifth SEC tourney title all time — and its first since 1979.
2. UK’s errant three-point shooting. Kentucky made only two of 20 three-pointers — with UK’s four primary guards combining to go 1-of-17.
TyTy Washington went 1-of-7 from behind the arc; Kellan Grady was 0-of-5; Davion Mintz went 0-of-3; and Sahvir Wheeler was 0-of-2.
Power forward Keion Brooks — who gave UK a spark with 19 points and five rebounds — hit the other Kentucky trey to finish 1-of-3 from behind the arc.
Particularly concerning was Grady’s 0-fer from behind the three-point line. The graduate transfer from Dayton fills the role of UK’s primary perimeter threat, so it is worrisome that he will enter the NCAA Tournament having gone 5-of-22 on treys over the Wildcats’ past six games.
One wonders if the two-game stretch where Grady had to run the point and played heavy minutes while Sahvir Wheeler and TyTy Washington nursed injuries has impacted his shooting.
3. Kentucky and adversity. To UK’s credit, on a day when it couldn’t buy a three-pointer and its best player was limited by foul trouble and ultimately disqualified, the Cats still scrapped their way from 12 down with 3:13 left (61-49) to within 65-62 with 1:31 left.
That showed grit.
Still, what seems worrisome in weighing Kentucky’s chances in the tournament that actually matters — the one sponsored by the NCAA — is how narrow UK’s margin of error seems this season when playing top teams.
In many of Kentucky’s losses, the Wildcats have lost a key player — or two — to injury.
On Saturday, UK’s best player was hamstrung by fouls.
It would be easier to feel better about Kentucky’s chances in the next tournament if the Wildcats had won some of these games against high-level competition where something major has gone wrong.
4. Calipari misses out on some SEC history. With UK’s loss, John Calipari’s record in SEC Tournament games fell to 24-6. The defeat prevented Calipari from tying ex-Alabama coach Wimp Sanderson (25) for the second-most wins in the modern history (since 1979) of the SEC tourney.
Former Florida coach Billy Donovan (27) is the modern leader in SEC Tournament wins.
In his first nine SEC Tournaments as Kentucky head coach, Calipari led the Wildcats to the finals eight times and to six championships.
Over the past three SEC tourneys, UK has gone 2-3 and failed to advance past the semifinals.
5. Oscar in the UK record book. In what was an overall frustrating day, Kentucky star Oscar Tshiebwe still managed to extend his streak of consecutive games with a double-double to 15 by finishing with 13 points and 11 boards.
Tshiebwe played only 25 minutes due to foul problems. He fouled out with 3:37 left in the game and UK down 58-49.
The double-double Saturday was Tshiebwe’s 27th of the season, moving him past Dan Issel (26 in 1969-70) for the single-season UK record.
With 499 rebounds in 2021-22, Tshiebwe needs 30 more boards to pass Cliff Hagan (528 in 1951-52) for second place on the UK single-season rebounding list and 69 to pass Bill Spivey (567 in 1950-51) for first.
This story was originally published March 12, 2022 at 6:22 PM.
