Seniors Steady UK’s Ship at A&M

Kentucky basketball held its annual Senior Night earlier this week at Rupp Arena.

On Saturday, those veterans decided to take the show on the road, starting with Dominique Hawkins.

UK was in the midst of yet another slow start and in checked the 6-foot Richmond, Kentucky, native.

“He was ridiculous,” John Calipari said. “I mean, both the energy that he showed and his defensive plays, his drive, the three-point play. He’s given this team such a lift.”

UK trailed 6-0 when Hawkins entered, unable to create any offense whatsoever. In spite of Hawkins’ efforts, the deficit quickly ballooned to 16-2. Then Hawkins came up with a steal and made a driving lineup. When Texas A&M’s Admon Gidler quickly answered with a 3-pointer to put UK in a 15-point hole, it was Hawkins who hit a trey of his own.

“Dom played extremely well, especially in the first half when he was getting into the lane, getting lobs,” De’Aaron Fox said. “Then they started backing up and he was making all his floaters.”

Hawkins’ contributions were badly needed with Malik Monk struggling. The explosive freshman guard managed only six points on 2-of-10 shooting, his first game scoring on single digits all season.

“I think tonight Dom kind of came in there and saved us in a sense,” Derek Willis said.

Willis played a role in the rescue as well. While Hawkins had all eight of his points and each of his three assists in the first half – leading the team in both categories – Willis was there in support with five points of his own. Fellow senior Mychal Mulder chipped in a 3-pointer with 1:59 left in the first half that gave the No. 9 Wildcats (26-5, 16-2 Southeastern Conference) the lead for good in a 71-63 win over the Aggies (16-14, 8-10 SEC) that ended the regular season and clinched the league title outright for UK.

Clearly, those seniors want to make their final games count.

“Last go-round, you want to give it your all and (it’s) just how we’re kind of thinking,” said Willis, who finished with 11 points, six rebounds and three blocks. “And just making the most of it, we want to advance far.

“We’ve both been to Final Fours and have a lot of experience in postseason play. We know what it takes to get there. We know what we need to do and part of it’s bringing energy and outfighting people. It really doesn’t have anything to do with talent in some of these games. Just outworking people.”

That’s a mature approach and one the rest of the Cats would be well served to mimic.

Through the first eight minutes in College Station, Texas, it was Texas A&M that was doing the outworking. That’s been all too common early in games for UK.

“We’ve been going through stuff trying to fix it,” Fox said. “These last three games, I don’t know, it’s just been different. But we’ve somehow picked up the intensity throughout the game. This time we actually took the lead before halftime and we kept it on the rest of the game.”

Fox was key to that. The Houston native scored 15 of his 19 points in the second half of his Texas homecoming.

“It was fun,” Fox said. “If you saw my ticket list, you’d laugh. And then I know half the students here. So it was fun being able to play in front of family and friends.”

Fox won’t be playing in his backyard the rest of the way, but he’s going to be essential to UK’s stretch run regardless. Fox is the Cats’ point guard and second-leading scorer. UK’s other top scorers (Monk and Bam Adebayo) are freshmen as well and the fourth player averaging double digits is Isaiah Briscoe, a sophomore.

Coach Cal, however, has something he’s never had before. A trio of seniors in his supporting cast to rely on when things inevitably go haywire.

“We’re probably one of the few young teams that’s winning,” Calipari said. “Out of 350 schools we’re 340-something in age. Like, we’re the youngest team in the country trying to play. But, Dom makes us older now, Mychal makes us older, Derek makes us older. All of a sudden we’re playing three seniors along with a bunch of other freshmen.”