Three takeaways from Kentucky’s must-win win over Louisville
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Game day: Kentucky beats Louisville in OT
Click here to read all of the Lexington Herald-Leader’s coverage from Saturday’s 78-70 University of Kentucky men’s basketball overtime victory over Louisville in Rupp Arena.
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Three takeaways from Kentucky’s 78-70 overtime victory over Louisville on Saturday:
1. The Wildcats stuck the defense on the Cardinals
Out in Las Vegas, UK’s defense got caught napping. For all the talk about the Wildcats’ lack of offensive punch in losses to Utah and Ohio State, John Calipari’s club allowed back-to-back clubs to shoot 50 percent or better — Utah shot 54.8 percent; Ohio State an even 50 percent — for the first time since the 2013-14 season.
Saturday, the Cats returned to the kind of defense we expect from a Calipari club. That was true in the first half especially, when UK held the visiting and third-ranked Cardinals to just 35.5 percent shooting, including a dreadful 1-of-11 from three-point range, on the way to a 32-24 halftime lead.
Best of all, Kentucky took Louisville’s best player out of the game. Jordan Nwora entered Rupp averaging 21.2 points per game. The ACC Preseason Player of the Year had scored 20-or-more points in eight of the Cards’ 12 games. He ended up scoring eight points in No. 13. Nwora was 2-of-10 from the floor, including 1-of-6 from three-point land. He even sat a significant portion of the second half, the portion in which Louisville rallied from a 12-point deficit.
“Jordan did not play well,” said Mack. “Other guys were playing harder.”
Kentucky’s defense had something to do with that. And Louisville ended up shooting 40.3 percent for the game, well below its season average of 48.5 percent.
2. Nick Richards shows what he can do
On Tom Leach’s radio show on Monday, Kent Spencer of WHAS put it nicely. Spencer said UK needed Nick Richards and EJ Montgomery to play good against a good team. Saturday, the Cats got half of that. And that turned out to be enough.
Richards, the team’s 7-foot center, scored 13 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in the UK win. Richards was 4-of-6 from the floor, made five of his seven free throws and grabbed six offensive rebounds. And get this: Richards drew a ridiculous 11 fouls. Plus, he did all of this despite picking up his fourth foul with 14:30 remaining.
“He’s big as hell,” said Louisville Coach Chris Mack afterward of Richards, but the thing is the junior doesn’t always play that way. Foul trouble limited him to 12 minutes against Ohio State. And Richards failed to get a rebound in those 12 minutes.
For Kentucky to be the team it can be, it needs for Richards to consistently play like he played against a very good Louisville team on Saturday.
“And we need to get EJ going,” said Calipari of Montgomery, who had four points and five rebounds in 25 minutes.
3. What happened with that technical foul?
Technically speaking, the game should have never gone to overtime. But with 4:23 left, Calipari picked up a technical foul for being out of the coaching box. The Kentucky coach had been warned earlier in the game, but was whistled for being almost to mid-court. Cal wasn’t jumping on the officials. He wasn’t throwing a fit. But he was out of the box.
Louisville’s Nwora hit the technical free throw for pull U of L within 52-49 and that extra point helped the Cards, who were down 12 in the second half, force an extra five minutes.
“My wife said she was going to take pictures of the other bench because he was out,” said Calipari of Louisville’s Mack. And indeed the Cardinals’ coach straddled the line from time to time.
Here’s my theory: Calipari is so demonstrative on the sideline, debating with officials, yelling instructions to his team, stomping his feet, waving his arms, he has a tendency to draw the attention of the officials. The coaching box is an area of emphasis this year. And they are going to notice when the coach is out of the box.
“I don’t care what an official calls as long as he calls it down at the other end,” Calipari said afterward. “This crew did a good job. I was on them. If I see this called, you better make that call.”
In the end, the call didn’t hurt the Cats, who got a must-win win over a really good basketball team. It would not surprise me to see these two play again in March.
This story was originally published December 28, 2019 at 9:22 PM.
