UK Unfazed by Adverse Circumstances in Road Win
The crowd at Bud Walton Arena smelled blood.
Arkansas was in the midst of a big run and John Calipari had just been ejected after back-to-back technical fouls. And when Mason Jones hit three the four ensuing free throws, the Razorbacks led by three, their first lead since the opening minutes.
While Arkansas’ fans were anticipating a signature win, Kentucky had other ideas.
“These kids are resilient,” associate head coach Kenny Payne said. “They deserve all the credit. When you come to a school like Kentucky it’s not talked about a lot, but you have to overcome adversity. We teach it, we talk about it every day. Things aren’t going to go your way in a game, just like life. How are you going to handle it? Who are you?”
It turns out the Wildcats are the kind of team that reels off a 17-2 run right after their coach gets tossed, delivering arguably their finest stretch of basketball in the process. On the strength of that spurt, No. 10/12 UK (13-4, 4-1 Southeastern Conference) bounced back with an impressive 73-66 win over Arkansas (14-3, 3-2 SEC).
“We had to stick together,” Tyres Maxey said. “We’re on the road, hostile environment. I was proud of my teammates. We came together as one unit and just got it done.”
Ashton Hagans steadied the ship just after the technical free throws with a driving layup before EJ Montgomery made one of two free throws. Then it was Maxey’s turn to score an and-one and a breakaway dunk, which Nick Richards followed by making four straight free throws. Immanuel Quickley delivered the exclamation point, burying a 3-pointer to extend UK’s lead to double digits, and Keion Brooks Jr. added a jumper for good measure.
“The whole time I’m telling Keion, ‘You have to grow up today,’ ” Payne said. ” ‘So I’m not taking you out. I need to know that you can get through this. I need to know that—you’re taking a test. How are you going to do on this test?’ He passed. I’m so proud of him because he’s had a hard road. The pressure that he’s been under to perform is a lot. The game is coming fast. He stood up and he came through for us. Really big. Big day for him today.”
It was a big day for UK’s team as a whole, which was coming off blowing a double-digit lead in a loss at South Carolina. That seemed on the verge of happening again, but Payne and his fellow UK assistants engineered a couple curveballs – one on offense, the other on defense – to stem the tide.
“What we talked about was, look, it’s crunch time,” Payne said. “It’s an execution game. So the last thing they’re expecting us to do is to rebound and push the ball up the court. Well, that’s what we did. We rebound the ball, we fly up first and then if we don’t have it we’re going to execute. By doing that, we got a couple of layups, we got a wide-open 3 and it opened the game up for us to give us a cushion.”
To execute that fast-paced offense, UK needed its point guard on the floor. It was for that reason that the Cats turned to a 2-3 zone defense to protect Hagans, who picked up his fourth foul with 15 minutes left.
“I think we practiced it yesterday at practice, for a little bit,” Maxey said. “For a little bit. Coach Cal doesn’t really run zone, so we just went to it. We trusted what they said to do and just executed it.”
It was Calipari who installed that zone Friday, so clearly he had the idea to capitalize on UK’s size advantage against Arkansas before his assistants implemented it. Because of that, Payne didn’t have to worry about Coach Cal’s reaction to going to the zone when they reunited postgame.
Instead, it was all happiness.
“When we got in, he gave me a hug,” Payne said. “He said, ‘I’m proud of you. I’m proud of these guys. They fought through. And I just told him, ‘This is what you’ve built: overcoming adversity.’ “
The feeling among Calipari’s players is much the same.
“We had to do it for him because he’s the guy that’s actually motivating us to win games and play to the best of our abilities,” Richards said. “I think we had to do it for him.”
