Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s startling loss to Tennessee
Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s 81-73 loss to the Tennessee Volunteers on Tuesday night at Rupp Arena:
1. Play with fire and you’re going to get burned
Time and time again, the Cats had found ways to make games closer. Oh, they’d still win. John Calipari’s club had won eight straight and 12 of their last 13 coming into the rematch with the rival Volunteers. It had clinched the SEC regular season title and the No. 1 seed in next week’s conference tournament in Nashville. But, too often, the Cats had failed to place their foot squarely on the necks of the opponent.
That bad habit caught up with them against the Vols. Up 11 at the half, Kentucky scored the first six points of the second half to extend the lead to 48-31 with 17:30 left. Less than a minute later, UK’s lead was 51-34 when Immanuel Quickley completed an old-fashioned three-point play. Then, for whatever reason, the Cats just seemed to quit.
Meanwhile, Tennessee didn’t quit. The Vols got hot. The Vols started scoring. And the Vols’ confidence kept growing. Center John Fulkerson finished with a career-high 27 points. Freshman Josiah-Jordan James, who did not play in UT’s 77-64 loss to UK in Knoxville earlier in the year, made some key baskets and rebounds on the way to 16 points and five assists. Yves Pons scored 15 points, making six of nine shots from the floor, including three of three from three-point range.
“The game got physical,” Calipari said afterward, “and we couldn’t compete.”
Time and again down the stretch, Tennessee came up with loose balls and key rebounds. One big one: Pons followed in a Fulkerson miss with 1:54 left to give Tennessee a 72-66 lead. Meanwhile, on the defensive end, the Vols clogged the lane, cutting off UK drives and forcing key turnovers. Down 70-66 with around two minutes to play, Kentucky turned the ball over twice, and missed a deep, deep three-pointer on three of its last six possessions.
“We just didn’t bring it tonight,” said Quickley, who finished with 15 points, but made just five of 16 shots. “We’ll learn from this.”
2. Nick Richards needs to return to being Nick Richards
Don’t get me wrong, the junior center has had a terrific season overall. He deserves to be in the discussion for SEC Player of the Year. He has progressed light years from his freshman season, even his sophomore season, to where he is right now.
But over the last few games, the 7-footer has not been as productive as he was earlier in the season. He had back-to-back single-digit scoring games against Florida (home) and Texas A&M (road) before scoring 14 points against Auburn last Saturday. Even then, Richards came up with just three rebounds, including one on the defensive end. He has not had a double-digit rebound game since he pulled down 11 boards against Mississippi State back on Feb. 4.
He didn’t get one Tuesday night, either, finishing with nine rebounds. His 12 points seemed respectable enough, but he made just two of five shots from the field. And Richards had just one offensive rebound on a night when Tennessee bashed the Cats on the boards 23-12 in the second half.
That talk of “physical play” Calipari mentioned surely included Richards, who at times lost loose balls, couldn’t cleanly field passes and was beaten on the boards at key times. Meanwhile, at the other end, UT big man Fulkerson was making 10 of 15 shots from the floor and going a perfect seven of seven at the foul line.
“We tried everything and we couldn’t stop him,” Calipari said. “Give Tennessee credit.”
3. Better an L now than an L a couple of weeks from now
Maybe Tuesday night was a textbook case of a letdown. As previously mentioned, the Cats had already sewn up the top seed in the conference tournament. With two regular-season games left to play, there was nothing to motivate this team from a standings standpoint.
“The letdown is that we lost,” Quickley said afterward.
And a loss is something that had not happened since Feb. 1 at Auburn, the same team the Cats beat in Rupp last Saturday. So maybe that victory, plus the conference crown, made this Kentucky team complacent. And it’s not a team that can get complacent.
“There’s two things,” Calipari said afterward. “If we don’t play physical, we’re not going to win. We won’t advance. Second thing is, this team is tied to each other. When one or two guys don’t play well, it affects everybody.”
Calipari, Quickley, Johnny Juzang and Tyrese Maxey, the coach and Cats made available to the media afterward, all said that the team will learn from such a stunning loss. If they don’t, the next lesson will be the season’s last.
This story was originally published March 4, 2020 at 1:05 AM.
