No. 9 Kentucky Hosts UAB on Friday
In the midst of an early season marked by a spat of injuries, Kentucky finally had a healthy complement of scholarship players – save, of course, Dontaie Allen, still recovering from high school knee surgery.
Then, the news came Wednesday morning that graduate transfer Nate Sestina had broken his wrist. UK would be without its most vocal veteran presence for three to four weeks.
In reacting to his team’s latest injury, John Calipari knows no one will feel sorry for the Wildcats. Why, then, should the Wildcats feel sorry for themselves?
“It is what it is,” Coach Cal said. “As a coach, how do you make this end up being a positive, so when he comes back in three, four weeks that we have a team that can play different ways and we’re adding a veteran that’s been out?”
The way it becomes a positive for No. 9/11 Kentucky (5-1) is if the players who have to step up in Sestina’s stead take advantage of the opportunity afforded them. Considering how young those players all are, it’s no stretch to think they will, starting with Friday’s game against UAB (4-1) at 7 p.m. ET.
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| Kentucky vs. UAB | ||
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Fri., Nov. 29 – 7 p.m. ET |
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| Coverage | ||
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TV: SEC Network |
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| UK | Stats | UAB |
| 5-1 | Record | 4-1 |
| 0-0 | Conference Record | 0-0 |
| 78.2 | PPG | 64.0 |
| 61.7 | Opp PPG | 58.4 |
| .469 | FG% | .408 |
| .352 | Opp FG% | .392 |
| 40.2 | RPG | 43.0 |
| .296 | 3PT FG% | .262 |
| .280 | Opp 3PT FG% | .288 |
| .788 | FT% | .753 |
| 13.8 | APG | 9.4 |
| 5.0 | SPG | 6.8 |
| 4.8 | BPG | 2.8 |
“We know he will be back real soon,” Ashton Hagans said. “He got a little injury, with his wrist, but other than that it’s just time to somebody else to step in and play their role and lead this team to something special.”
A challenge for UK is the thinness of its frontcourt. With Sestina going down, the Cats now have only two players taller than 6-foot-9 in Nick Richards and EJ Montgomery. That’s likely to force Coach Cal to turn to smaller lineups – with either Kahlil Whitney or Keion Brooks at the four – even more than he already has been.
“I played a small lineup today,” Calipari said. “The small lineup being guards and Kahlil and one big. It didn’t look bad. I’m trying different stuff. How would we play with this unit?”
The question, of course, is whether Whitney can provide what UK needs at the four position. He is eager for his chance to try.
“Nate was a big part of rebounding and toughness in our team,” Whitney said. “So guys have to step up. It’s got to be me, Keion (Brooks), Johnny Juzang playing a lot of minutes coming off the bench. We’ve just got to come in and be tough.”
Calipari is opting to lean on Whitney more at the four than he is with Brooks, even though Brooks is an inch taller. There’s a clear reason for that.
“He’s more physical, and if we’re playing another team that has a 6-6 physical guy, I think Kahlil can play him better,” Calipari said. “And I’m not sure if there’s any fours that can guard him.”
Whitney, in playing the four, will face a stiff immediate test on Friday. UAB is likely to be the most physical opponent UK will have faced since its season opener, frequently playing lineups with a pair of 6-10 players (Makhtar Gueye and Tamell Pearson) in the post. The Blazers are also second nationally in offensive rebounding percentage and outrebounding opponents by an average of 13 per game.
UK could certainly use its second-leading rebounder in Sestina for such a matchup, but such is life in college basketball.
“Him (Sestina) being injured, how do we make this work for everybody?” Calipari said. “How do we take advantage of him being out? How do we make sure that we’re looking at this to get better? They looked at me this morning and I’m like, ‘Look, I’m jacked up now.’ There’s no one feeling sorry for us. No one. A lot of happy people. And I’m looking at it like, alright, let’s go. Let’s do this.?”
Sestina to Miss Approximately Four Weeks with Left Wrist Fracture
Forward Nate Sestina is expected to miss approximately four weeks after fracturing his left wrist in practice on Tuesday. He had surgery Wednesday morning.
“We haven’t been a full team in over a month,” UK head coach John Calipari said. “Nate goes to shoot a layup, it gets blocked, he falls back, goes to stop himself (and) breaks his wrist/hand. He’s out … approximately four weeks. Now we regroup. Next man up.”
Sestina, a graduate transfer from Bucknell, has played a key part in Kentucky’s 5-1 start, providing valuable on-court production, leadership and experience.
The 6-foot-9, 234-pound forward is averaging 7.3 points and 7.2 rebounds, including a double-double (12 points and 11 rebounds) vs. Eastern Kentucky and a critical 3-pointer in the second half of the win over then-No. 1/1 Michigan State.
Sestina has played 30 or more minutes in four of six games, an especially important contribution with a thin front court that was magnified with the three-game game absence of forward EJ Montgomery (Eastern Kentucky, Evansville and Utah Valley games).
Last season, his first as a starter at Bucknell, Sestina averaged 15.8 points, a team-high 8.5 rebounds and 1.1 blocks. He shot 53.6% from the floor and made 41 3-pointers at a 38.0% clip. The All-Patriot Second Team selection ranked sixth in the league in scoring and second in rebounding.
Sestina scored in double figures in 27 of 31 games and posted 11 double-doubles last season. He scored 20 or more points in 10 games, including his final two games that led to Patriot League All-Tournament Team honors. Eight different Wildcats on the roster have dealth with injuries this season, severely testing the Wildcats’ depth. More information on that below.
Sestina is the third graduate transfer under Calipari, joining Reid Travis from last season and Julius Mays in 2012-13. He transferred to UK to pursue a master’s degree after graduating with his undergraduate degree in geography from Bucknell.
Kentucky Cruises Past Lamar for Third Straight Win
Tyrese Maxey had a breakout performance in Kentucky’s season opener and it took five games for the freshman guard to duplicate the outing against Michigan State. Maxey scored 21 points — five shy of his career high — and the Wildcats made a season-high 10 3-pointers in an 81-56 victory over Lamar on Sunday night.
The freshman guard made a career-high four 3-pointers, surpassing the three he made in the Wildcats’ opening victory over Michigan State.
Ashton Hagans added 15 points for Kentucky (5-1). Immanuel Quickley had 11, and Nick Richards added 10 points, 13 rebounds and a career-high seven blocks. Davion Buster led Lamar (4-2) with 19 points. Kentucky opened and closed the first half in impressive fashion. The Wildcats raced to a 15-2 lead and closed with a 22-2 run. The scoring spree came after the Cardinals tied it at 19 with 8:52 remaining.
“We played better today,” John Calipari said. “(We did) a lot of good stuff today. A lot of good stuff. Of the teams we’ve played, other than Michigan State, this team was as good as any of them, if not better than most of them or all of them. We played better.”
Maxey sparked the decisive spree with a career-high four 3-pointers and led the Wildcats with 12 points in the half. Lamar managed just one field goal in the final eight minutes. Calipari said Maxey’s treys “stretched the game out.”
“Like, those baskets (were) like bang, bang, bang,” Calipari said. “He knows, if it’s in transition, he can take it. Like, if we throw it ahead and he’s open in transition, don’t drive it, just shoot that ball.”
Of note …
• Kentucky is on a three-game winning streak
• UK held Lamar to 56 points
• UK is 177-7 under Calipari when the opponent scores 63 or less. The Wildcats are 4-0 this season when the opponent scores 63 or less
• The Wildcats limited Lamar to 50.9% shooting with the help of a season-high 13 blocked shots
• The Wildcats are 191-17 under Calipari when the opponent shoots 40% or less. UK is 4-1 this season when limiting the opponent to less than 40%
• Kentucky led by as many as 27 points in the game
• UK is 265-6 under Calipari when leading by at least 10 points during the game
• UK shot 50.9% from the field, the third game this season shooting 50% or better
• Kentucky’s 10 3-pointers are the most the team has hit in a game since sinking 11 vs. Auburn on Feb. 23 (11 of 24)
• UK dished out 19 assists and totaled 40 assists over the last two games, the best two-game stretch since totaling 57 vs. Arizona State and UT Martin in November 2016
• In addition to blocking a career-high seven shots, Richards posted his third double-double of the season, becoming the fourth Kentucky player of the Calipari era to post at least three double-doubles within the team’s first six games of the season (Patrick Patterson, 2009-10; Terrence Jones, 2010-11; Julius Randle, 2013-14)
• With 15 points and a season-high nine assists, Hagans is averaging 19.0 points, 7.3 assists, 5.0 rebounds and 57.1% shooting over the last three games
