Three takeaways as Kentucky basketball avoids a second straight shocker
Three takeaways from Kentucky’s 82-74 win over Utah Valley on Monday night in Rupp Arena:
1. This team is kind of a mess right now
Chalk it up to injuries. And poor three-point shooting. And a tendency to let the opponent, the visiting opponent, gain momentum and confidence on your home floor. Have I left anything out? Probably not.
“We are who we are right now,” said UK Coach John Calipari after the visiting Wolverines sliced a 16-point Wildcats lead all the way down to one point. “We are who the score says we are.”
Almost a week after being gobsmacked at home by Evansville, and the same day the Cats officially lost their No. 1 ranking in the AP college basketball poll — slipping all the way to No. 9 — UK added Immanuel Quickley to the medical list. The sophomore guard sat out Monday night with a chest injury suffered on the final play of Sunday’s practice. (No wonder Cal was late for his post-practice media availability.) It was the third straight game without sophomore forward EJ Montgomery.
The absences had little to do with the Cats clanging their way to a 1-for-12 showing from beyond the three-point stripe. Calipari was asked if the new extended line had anything to do with the fact Kentucky is now 7-for-43 from three-point land over its last three games. “Doesn’t seem to be bothering anybody else,” said the coach.
Kentucky basketball game-by-game individual stats
It didn’t bother the visiting Wolverines, who were 11-for-31 from three-point range. In one memorable stretch, UVU’s TJ Washington hit three consecutive three-point bombs from nearly the exact same spot on the left wing to pull Mark Madsen’s team within 54-47 with 11:11 to play. With 3:25 left, Washington buried yet another three, this time pulling Utah Valley within a single point, 68-67.
Kentucky regained its balance and managed to close it out from there. A string of eight straight made free throws helped seal the deal. Actually, the foul line was the difference in the game. Kentucky made 31 of its 34 free throws, which was the answer to Calipari’s, “They made 11 three-pointers and we made one. How did we win the game?”
Bottom line: Kentucky avoided a second straight stunner.
2. Part of Kentucky’s rebound had to do with rebounding
In Sunday’s day-before press conference, Calipari pointed out that traditionally his long, athletic teams ranked in the top 10 in the nation in offensive rebounding. Cal said so far this year UK was last among Power Five schools in that category.
That should change based on Monday’s monster game on the boards. The Cats out-rebounded the visiting Wolverines 46-27. Nate Sestina led the way with 12 rebounds. Junior center Nick Richards posted his second double-double in his last three games, scoring 21 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.
Better yet, the Cats crashed the offensive glass to where they grabbed 40% of their missed shots. That’s a season high, beating the 36.4 percent in the 91-49 romp over Eastern Kentucky. UK posted just a 17.0 offensive rebounding percentage in the Champions Classic victory over Michigan State and a 22.9 in the now famous (infamous?) loss to Evansville.
(By the way, Evansville lost at home to SMU 59-57 on Monday.)
So what changed? Emphasis on rebounding surely helped. And Richards said afterward that Calipari’s chart of how many times each player attempted to get an offensive rebound against Evansville showed some really low numbers.
At least that was fixed Monday, even without Montgomery. And don’t forget effort. Late in the game, freshman Kahlil Whitney dislocated his finger on a drive to the basket, but hustled back down the floor and nearly grabbed a rebound before — ouch — popping the finger back in place and leaving the game.
3. What’s the deal with all those empty seats in Rupp Arena?
It’s not unusual for there to be some empty seats around Rupp Arena during the non-conference season, especially since the birth of the SEC Network and the recent trend of a less-than-dazzling home non-conference schedule. Still, not sure we’ve seen as many empty seats at Rupp as we did Monday.
At tip-off, only about half of the E-Rupp-tion Zone, where students stand in the end zone, was filled. It grew to about two-thirds full during the game, but was nowhere near full. And that was the good news.
The upper level end zone bleachers above the E-Rupp-tion Zone were nearly empty. The announced attendance was 18,859, meaning tickets distributed, and meaning that plenty who were distributed tickets did not show up. And this is becoming something of a trend.
So what gives? Go across the country and athletics directors will tell you that it’s difficult to get students to consistently attend games. (A fact that scares them for the future.) And the days of UK fans showing up to see the Cats play just any old opponent are over. TV took care of that. The weeknight dates and odd starting times don’t help. But TV is the main culprit. Leagues have exchanged packed arenas for larger rights fees.
Here’s my question: With the ACC and the Big Ten both going to 20 conference games, could the SEC be next? The coaches don’t want it. The athletics directors are probably not crazy about the idea, either. But you know that at some point ESPN is going to suggest it as a way of filling the SEC Network with better programming. And those extra conference games have a much better chance of filling more seats.
This story was originally published November 18, 2019 at 11:11 PM.
