Challenge Means Opportunity in Trip to Auburn
John Calipari said something that seemed, on its face, a little counterintuitive on his radio show Monday night.
In the midst of struggles for his team, Coach Cal said he was the glad the Wildcats are headed on the road to Auburn. You might expect him to prefer facing a lesser opponent in the friendly confines of Rupp Arena, but he prefers an away game against a top-10 team and the Southeastern Conference’s leader.
On Tuesday, associate head coach Kenny Payne translated for his boss.
“I think if you’ve been around Cal long enough, you realize opportunity,” Payne said.
Payne’s eight years with Calipari mean he’s thinking exactly the same way.
“This is a great opportunity for us to go into a hostile environment – a bunch of young players, freshmen and sophomores – and go steal one,” Payne said. “That’s the game plan – go take one from them. They’re not going to give it to us. Without a doubt, they’ve been one of the best teams in this conference. They only have two losses in conference. Everything will say we’ve got our hands full, so go prove people wrong.”
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| Kentucky at Auburn | ||
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Sat., Feb. 10 – 8:15 p.m. ET |
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TV: ESPN2 |
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| UK | 2017-18 Team Stats | AU |
| 17-8 | Record | 22-3 |
| 6-6 | Conference Record | 10-2 |
| 76.0 | PPG | 85.5 |
| 70.5 | Opp PPG | 72.4 |
| .466 | FG% | .458 |
| .411 | Opp FG% | .417 |
| 38.9 | RPG | 38.2 |
| .333 | 3PT FG% | .390 |
| .291 | Opp 3PT FG% | .346 |
| .687 | FT% | .777 |
| 13.4 | APG | 15.1 |
| 5.8 | SPG | 7.4 |
| 5.2 | BPG | 5.8 |
The Cats (17-8, 6-6 SEC) will have their doubters come Wednesday at 9 p.m. Not only is UK in the midst of the first three-game losing streak of the Calipari era, but Auburn is also one of the best teams in the country. The No. 10/11 Tigers have a two-game lead in the SEC and were tabbed the top No. 2 seed by the Selection Committee in Sunday’s in-season look at the NCAA Tournament bracket.
Combine Auburn’s best season in years with Kentucky coming to town and you have a recipe for a raucous Auburn Arena.
“We’re getting ready for March, so this type of environment—you never know where you might end up in March, what environment you might play at,” Quade Green said. “So games like this, another good team we’re going against, it’s going to be a good thing.”
The Tigers were without leading scorer and 3-point shooter Bryce Brown (16.6 ppg, 41.5 percent from 3) last weekend at Georgia, but that didn’t stop them from bouncing back from a midweek loss to Texas A&M with a 78-61 win. Auburn followed its usual path to victory even without him – efficient, guard-driven offense and opportunistic defense – by hitting 11 3s and forcing turnovers on more than 20 percent of Georgia’s possessions.
Brown’s status for Wednesday remains up in the air as he works through a shoulder injury suffered against A&M.
“They’re pretty good,” Green said of Auburn’s backcourt. “All of them are good, actually. They all can shoot deep, drive, pass to each other, create for each other. We’ve got our hands full with this team.”
On paper, UK’s greatest advantage against Auburn comes in the form of its size. Auburn ranks 298th nationally in average height according to kenpom.com, with no active player taller than 6-foot-8. Kentucky, meanwhile, starts 6-9 Kevin Knox at small forward and 6-6 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander at point guard. Gilgeous-Alexander would be the second-tallest player on the floor for Auburn much of the time.
“I think our advantages are going to be our length, our athleticism,” Payne said. “They are not a tall team. They are basically, it looks like, three or four guards and a forward. Their tallest guy is 6-7, 6-8 that is playing minutes. We have to take advantage of that. That means offensive rebounding, that means stuff around the baskets we have to be strong. We have to be the aggressor.”
Being the aggressor against Auburn is no simple task.
“They’re not very tall, but they play really hard,” Hamidou Diallo said. “So it makes up for itself. They play really hard and we’re just going to have to go out there and compete. With length or without length, we’re going to have to play. They’re going to be there trying to battle us, playing really aggressive and they’re a good team.
“They’re capable of beating us and I think they’re the best team in the conference right now. So it’s a really big game for us right now and we’re just going to have to come out and try to fight for the whole game. All 40 minutes.”
Diallo’s choice of words – “all 40 minutes” – was no accident, as putting together a complete game has been a constant struggle for this team. Good halves – like the first at A&M on Saturday – have been plentiful, but too often poor ones have followed.
“They’re getting a lesson that there are no excuses at Kentucky,” Payne said. “There is no, ‘My stomach hurts. I don’t feel good. I’m fighting the flu. I don’t have it tonight.’ There is no, ‘The referee gave me a bad call.’ There is no, ‘I was open and he didn’t pass it to me.’ The end result to all of this is that we brought you here to be winning basketball players or you wouldn’t be here. That’s your DNA or you would not be in this program.”
Therein lies a balancing act for UK’s coaches. On one hand, they have to show players what they are doing wrong, which is the purpose of film review. The message has been received.
“It looks terrible on the film, to be honest,” Diallo said. “We all look terrible, including myself, and it’s just things we’re going to have to get better at. We see it on the film now and now it’s all about correcting it.”
On the other hand, Calipari and his assistants have to remind players much is expected of them only because the coaching staff knows they can deliver.
“We are going to challenge you as a freshman to think like a senior,” Payne said. “We are going to challenge you as a college player to think as a professional player. That’s what we do here.”
To capitalize on the opportunity offered by a game against Auburn will take players accepting and responding to those challenges.
“This team is capable,” Payne said. “This team is more than capable even though they’re young. We’re not using youth as an excuse; we just need them to fight, to not give up four, five-minute stretches of lackluster basketball. If you can do that, you give us a winning chance.”
Wildcats Fall at Resurgent Texas A&M
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 19 points, including 13 in the second half, but No. 24/24 Kentucky lost at Texas A&M 85-74 on Saturday night in SEC action. It marked the first three-game losing streak of the John Calipari era at Kentucky.
Gilgeous-Alexander hit 9 of 12 from the floor and added eight assists and three rebounds in the game.
Kentucky (17-8, 6-6 SEC) got 18 points from Kevin Knox and 13 from Hamidou Diallo. Jarred Vanderbilt had seven points and seven rebounds before fouling out.
The Wildcats hit 30 of 66 (45.5 percent) from the floor in the game, including six of 15 (40 percent) from behind the arc. A&M was 31 of 66 (47 percent) from the floor, including nine of 23 (39.1 percent) from 3-point range. Kentucky outrebounded the bigger Aggies 43-40 and scored 17 points off of nine A&M turnovers.
Kentucky had an 8-5 lead early in the game behind six quick points from Knox, but the Wildcats went cold. UK missed its next nine shots over a 5:11 scoring drought, allowing A&M to g on a 7-0 run to take a 12-8 advantage with 12:27 left in the half. From there, the game would be tied four times and there would be five lead changes before halftime. The final lead change of the first 20 minutes came when Gilgeous-Alexander hit a jumper to give the Cats a 27-26 lead with 56 seconds left in the half. The first half would end on a Quade Green 3-pointer, and Kentucky held a 30-26 lead at the break.
The second half was a much different story. The game was tied 32-32 when the Aggies went on an 11-0 run to break it open. The run didn’t stop there, as A&M would make it a 29-7 stretch to lead 61-39 with 10:23 left in the contest.
Kentucky would trail 75-52 with 5:56 left in the game, but the Wildcats did not go away, chipping away at the lead for the rest of the game. The Cats used a 19-4 run to cut the lead to single digits, 79-71, with 56 seconds left. But Kentucky would get no closer.
NOTABLES:
• The 59 points Kentucky surrendered in the second half are the most points UK has allowed in a half since Louisville scored 59 in the second half of an 89-75 victory over the Wildcats on Jan. 5, 2008
• Knox scored in double figures for the eighth time in an opening half this season
• UK fell to 11-3 this season when leading at the break
• Gilgeous-Alexander has dished out six or more assists in 10 games this season and five times over the last seven games
• Diallo scored all 13 of his points in the second half. It was his 14th double-figure scoring game of the season
Bounce Back
The Wildcats don’t lose very often during the John Calipari era, but when they do, they almost always bounce back. UK is 42-11 under Calipari following a loss.
The Wildcats have only lost back-to-back games 11 times during the Calipari era. Their current three-game losing streak is a first under Calipari. Previously, the last time UK lost three games in a row was in February 2009, when the Wildcats dropped four straight games to end the regular season.
