Cats Face Georgia Tech on Saturday at Rupp
Kentucky is in the midst of a five-game winning streak, with the Wildcats playing their best basketball since a season-opening win over No. 1 Michigan State.
If you think that means John Calipari is anything close to content, you don’t know the Hall of Famer at all.
“We’re never going to be satisfied,” Coach Cal said. “That’s OK. What’s the next step up for these kids?”
It’s a fitting time for that exact question.
A matchup with Georgia Tech (4-3) begins a 21-game stretch to close the regular season during which the No. 8/9 Wildcats (7-1) will face only power-conference opponents. UK will host the Yellow Jackets at 5 p.m. on Saturday, with Utah, Ohio State and Louisville to follow to wrap up 2019 and the Southeastern Conference waiting in 2020.
“We’ve got a tough road here,” John Calipari said. “This is a hard game. I’m anxious to see where we are at this point. It’s December, early December, so we’re still trying to figure ourselves out. You need games like this to do it.”
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| Kentucky vs. Georgia Tech | ||
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Sat., Dec. 14 – 5 p.m. ET |
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TV: ESPN |
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| UK | Stats | GT |
| 7-1 | Record | 4-3 |
| 0-0 | Conference Record | 0-0 |
| 77.6 | PPG | 69.9 |
| 60.0 | Opp PPG | 69.1 |
| .476 | FG% | .441 |
| .356 | Opp FG% | .366 |
| 40.2 | RPG | 40.7 |
| .290 | 3PT FG% | .290 |
| .289 | Opp 3PT FG% | .303 |
| .795 | FT% | .586 |
| 15.3 | APG | 14.7 |
| 4.8 | SPG | 7.1 |
| 4.5 | BPG | 7.1 |
Georgia Tech might be coming off a blowout loss to Syracuse, but the Yellow Jackets do boast wins over North Carolina State and Nebraska. They also went down to the wire with both Georgia and Arkansas and have one of the nation’s top scorers in sophomore guard Michael Devoe (21.4 ppg, 52.9% shooting from 3).
“This team we’re playing tomorrow, Georgia Tech, (head coach) Josh (Pastner) has done a great job,” Calipari said. “They’re playing zone. They’re playing a really high wing zone. They’ll trap corners. They’ll go and flip into a 1-3-1, if you drive they collapse. My guess is they’ll make us shoot 3s.”
Joining Devoe in double figures in scoring are forwards Moses Wright (12.1 ppg, 8.3 rpg) and James Banks (11.3 ppg, 8.4 rpg). The duo also combines to block 5.4 shots per game, with Banks third in the country at 4.0 by himself.
“From what I saw myself, they try to post up their bigs a lot,” Nick Richards said. “They run a lot of screens. They are a very fast-paced team. They sprint the court on offense, then they try to get back on defense a lot. It’s going to be a real challenge for us.”
Georgia Tech also has a first-year player familiar to Kentucky fans. Bubba Parham, who poured in 10 3-pointers and 35 points for VMI against UK at Rupp last year, was granted immediate eligibility after transferring and is playing more than 30 minutes per game.
“He hasn’t slept in two days waiting on this game,” Calipari said.
With the Cats having a week since they last played, Parham might not be alone in that.
“I’m not even going to lie, I like playing more than practicing,” Richards said. “That’s every basketball player. The fact that we had this whole entire week off, just to get better as a team, get better individually as players, we’re just going to take advantage of that time.”
Calipari will make sure of that.
“We’ve got great kids,” Calipari said. “The people watching, we’re holding them accountable. It’s what we’re trying to do, and just saying, ‘here’s how we’re playing.’ Probably been tougher in practice than I had all year for three days. A couple days I was really tough. Tough meaning it’s a high standard, what we’re expecting.”
To pursue that standard, Coach Cal has hammered home a pair of keywords over the last two weeks: fight and finish. Now, he’s adding a few questions to the mix.
“Do people watch us and say, ‘Wow, they’re finally getting out and running? Wow, they are fighting for balls?’ ” Calipari said. “You see that we put an emphasis on creating shots for each other. We’ve been at 20 assists in the last three or four games. Do they continue to create shots for each other? Are individual players beginning to play better? Are they breaking through individually?”
Plenty of opportunities for breakthroughs are forthcoming.
Montgomery Leads Cats Past Fairleigh Dickinson
EJ Montgomery has worked to create offensive opportunities, so he wasn’t too shocked by the plentiful chances he got against Fairleigh Dickinson. Those looks culminated in a personal scoring best for the Kentucky forward and propelled the No. 8/10 Wildcats toward a milestone win in their historic home arena.
Montgomery scored a career-high 25 points, forward Keion Brooks Jr. added 15 off the bench and Kentucky dominated Fairleigh Dickinson 83-52 on Saturday for its 600th victory at Rupp Arena.
The 6-foot-10 sophomore made 12 of 16 from the field, including several dunks to surpass his previous scoring best of 16 on Nov. 29 against UAB. Montgomery also had nine rebounds, a block and a steal, demonstrating his growing comfort zone in five games after missing the previous three with a sprained right ankle.
“After I made my first shot, I just felt confident out there and just tried to compete,” Montgomery said. “My mindset was just this is my game, go out there and show and do what I do.”
Forward Nick Richards had 12 points and 10 rebounds for the Wildcats (7-1), whose 17-0 run in the first half built a 43-23 halftime lead. Kentucky shot 51.6% and held the Knights (2-6) to 32.4% shooting, outrebounded them 42-33 and owned nearly every statistic for their fifth consecutive victory after a week off.
The Wildcats became the fastest school to reach 600 wins in an arena in NCAA Division I history. Kentucky achieved the milestone at the 43-year-old building named after coach Adolph Rupp in 670 games, surpassing the pace of UCLA (689 games at Pauley Pavilion) and Kansas (699 at Allen Fieldhouse).
Kentucky’s latest home win also had plenty of contributors.
Ashton Hagans had 11 points and 11 assists — his second career double-double — and the sophomore guard has averaged nine assists over his past five games. Freshman Johnny Juzang had four points, three rebounds and two steals in 23:27 after making his first career start.
Of note …
• Kentucky continued its unselfish ways with 20 assists. The Wildcats have combined for 79 assists over the last four games, the best fourgame stretch of assists since passing out 79 from Nov. 25 to Dec. 7, 2016
• The Wildcats scored nine of their 32 field goals (28.1%) by way of dunks. Montgomery led the way with five of his 12 made field goals coming from a slam. It marked a season-high number of flushes for UK
• UK held FDU to 52 points. Kentucky is a perfect 76-0 under John Calipari when the opponent scores 55 points or less
• The Wildcats led by as many as 34 points in the game. UK is 267-6 under Calipari when leading by at least 10 points during the game
• Kentucky outrebounded UAB by nine (42-33). The Wildcats have outrebounded each of their last five opponents
• UK held FDU to 32.3% shooting. UK improved to 192.17 under Calipari when holding the opponent to 40% or less. All but two of Kentucky’s opponents this season have failed to hit 40%
• Kentucky made 17 of 19 at the line and is shooting 79.5% from the stripe this season
• Montgomery’s 12 field goals are the most makes by a Wildcat since Shai Gilgeous-Alexander sunk 12 vs. Vanderbilt on Jan. 30, 2018
• Hagans’ five-game streak of five or more assists is the best run since De’Aaron Fox dished out five or more assists in seven games from Nov. 15, 2016 to Dec. 7, 2016
Home Sweet Home: Wildcats Win No. 600 in Rupp Arena in Record Time
The 83-62 victory over Fairleigh Dickinson on Dec. 7 marked win No. 600 in Rupp Arena. Not only did UK reach a milestone, the Wildcats became the fastest to 600 wins for a program in one venue in NCAA Division I history.
Already owning an impressive .896 winning percentage, Kentucky’s dominance in Rupp is impressive. It took UK just 670 games to reach win No. 600. UCLA previously held the fastest pace, having reached the mark in 689 games in Pauley Pavilion. Only one other team, Kansas, has achieved win No. 600 in fewer than 700 games. The Jayhawks reached the significant win in their 699th game.
Other notable numbers involving Rupp Arena:
• UK has gone undefeated 13 times in the 43-year history of the building, most recently in 2015-16
• The most wins in one season is 19, set in 2014-15
• John Calipari is the venue’s all-time winningest coach with 173 wins. He reached win No. 100 in the venue in just 104 games, the fastest of any UK coach
• Under Calipari, the Wildcats are 153-5 against unranked foes and 92-4 against nonconference opponents
• Calipari began his career with a 54-game winning streak, the longest such winning streak in the venue’s history
Calipari-Pastner Connection
John Calipari has made it known that he doesn’t enjoy coaching against friends. In that regard, Saturday won’t be particularly enjoyable for Calipari as he’s pitted against one of his former Memphis assistants.
Pastner was on Calipari’s staff during his final season at Memphis in 2008-09. After earning a reputation as a tireless recruiter at Arizona and then at Memphis, Pastner took over the reins at Memphis when Calipari took the Kentucky job, becoming the youngest coach in NCAA Division I basketball at the time at 31 years old.
In seven seasons in Memphis, Pastner continued the successful run Calipari had built with four NCAA Tournament appearances in seven seasons. He took over at Georgia Tech for the 2016-17 season and is now in his fourth season.
It will be the first time Calipari and Pastner have gone head-to-head. Calipari is 16-0 all-time vs. his former assistant coaches in regular-season games.
