Player-Driven UK Hits Road for Texas Tech
It’s always John Calipari’s goal to build a player-driven team.
By the time March rolls around, he wants to have handed over the reins, leaving it up to players to lead the way and hold one another accountable.
As Coach Cal watched last Saturday as Kentucky steadied the ship and scored a huge win at Arkansas after he was ejected, he realized the Wildcats were ready for the responsibility.
“We kind of had to, not really on our own because we had assistant coaches,” Immanuel Quickley said, “but we kind of had to look each other in the eye and see if everybody was going to give everything they had, and they did.”
In their first game after that, the Cats were up to the challenge – for about 35 minutes before Calipari had to reassert himself to finish the game against Georgia. Now, No. 15/14 UK (14-4, 5-1 Southeastern Conference) will hit the road to face No. 18/18 Texas Tech (12-6, 3-3 Big 12) at 6 p.m. ET for another chance to prove their mettle.
“I’m here to guide and help,” Calipari said. “This is their team. They know how we’re going to play. We’re going to prepare them for the game and then it’s their game. It doesn’t mean you get selfish. It doesn’t mean you go do your own thing. It means we’re doing this together and now we have a great game plan let’s go do it.”
Of course, it’s not as if Calipari is ever going to be passive in coaching his team. It’s just that now his energies – he hopes – will be spent prior to tip. Practice on Thursday is a good example of what that looks like.
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| Kentucky at Texas Tech | ||
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Sat., Jan. 25 – 6 p.m. ET |
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TV: ESPN |
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| UK | Stats | TTU |
| 14-4 | Record | 12-6 |
| 5-1 | Conference Record | 3-3 |
| 75.7 | PPG | 72.7 |
| 64.7 | Opp PPG | 61.8 |
| .464 | FG% | .443 |
| .387 | Opp FG% | .400 |
| 38.6 | RPG | 35.6 |
| .316 | 3PT FG% | .329 |
| .292 | Opp 3PT FG% | .319 |
| 14.8 | APG | 16.4 |
| 5.3 | SPG | 7.9 |
| 5.2 | BPG | 3.6 |
“(Thursday) was one of our hardest practices,” Calipari said. “… We went two-and-a-half hours and we went hard from start to finish. (Friday) will be, we travel so it’s not going to be as rough. It’ll be more cerebral. (Thursday) was a good day for them.”
That’s not just the coach talking either.
“We had a real good practice yesterday,” Johnny Juzang said, smiling as he remembered the intensity. “Yes, sir. Real good.”
Calipari knows his team needs to go hard to prepare for a team that was national runner-up last season. The environment figures to be intense in Lubbock, Texas, but UK has been in that kind of situation as recently as last weekend. That’s why Calipari is more concerned about the team the Cats will be facing than the fans who will be cheering against them.
“We’re playing a heck of a team and I’ve watched a bunch of the tapes,” Calipari said. “Defensively they’re different, which makes it hard for teams that are playing them. Just different in what they do. They go press to passive aggressive. They go zone to man. They go trap from the baseline. They collapse like a lot of teams. A lot of hands on drives, so if you’re not used to hands on drives it will affect you. Offensively, they’re in the top five or so in assisted baskets, which means they’re a good team. They find each other.”
UK hasn’t faced a team like Texas Tech before, particularly the way the Red Raiders play defense under Chris Beard. That’s exactly why this is such a valuable game.
“This is a game–we’re still in January, we’re still learning about ourselves,” Calipari said. “I love this game because it’s, again, a different kind of team. you get to the NCAA Tournament and you’re facing crazy teams and this is another one. You can say, ‘remember that game? Bang. Here we go.’ “
How UK responds to that challenge remains to be seen. What’s guaranteed is that it will be the players who dictate the response.
“I think the best teams are player-driven because you can hold each other accountable and guys won’t get upset or anything like that,” Quickley said. “When your team becomes player-driven, I think that the team can reach a really high potential.”
Veterans Lead Wildcats Past Georgia
Ashton Hagans believed breaking out of recent shooting struggles was just a matter of falling in line with other facets of his game. And, facing a team from his home state seems to bring out his best.
Hagans scored 14 of his 23 points in the second half and No. 15/14 Kentucky used a 14-4 run to pull away and beat Georgia 89-79 on Tuesday.
The Wildcats (14-4, 5-1 Southeastern Conference) had to work to put away the stubborn Bulldogs, who overcame missing 11 consecutive firsthalf shots and trailed 41-35 at halftime.
The Bulldogs closed within 41-39 and then struggled to score two baskets. Kentucky came out of a timeout and responded with baskets by Hagans and Nick Richards (20 points, eight rebounds) before Hagans made consecutive jumpers to build the lead to eight points.
Georgia didn’t fade and trailed 55-52 when Kentucky answered with the pivotal run featuring six points from Keion Brooks Jr., pushing the lead to 69-56. Hagans closed the game with four free throws as the Wildcats earned their 14th consecutive series win.
While Kentucky didn’t close as completely as coach John Calipari desired, he liked how his squad took control during a critical stretch.
“It was player driven,” the coach said, adding that he had to jump in in the final minutes. “I asked them how they liked the player driven (responsibility) and they all said, `Yeah, yeah.’ ‘I would like to go full game without getting actively involved. This team became empowered during thelast game. Now they feel it is about each other.”
Hagans, a Cartersville, Georgia, native, finished 8 of 17 from the field after making just 14 of 43 the previous four games. He also had nine assists, five rebounds and four steals in 35 minutes. In three games against the Bulldogs, Hagans is averaging 19.7 points and six assists.
“It’s always good to go against my home-state team,” he said.
Richards was 7 of 12 from the floor, Immanuel Quickley had 12 points and EJ Montgomery scored 10 for the Wildcats, who shot 54.3% in the second half and 52.5% overall.
Of note …
• Kentucky won its 10th straight home game and is 11-1 this season in Rupp Arena
• UK scored 89 points, most since Nov. 8 when the Cats defeated Eastern Kentucky 91-49
• Kentucky shot 52.5% from the field and is now 13-1 this season when outshooting the opponent. This was the sixth time this season that UK has made at least 50%, all wins.
• The Wildcats had another solid performance at 78.8% (26 of 33)
• Kentucky led by 16 points in the second half. UK is now 274-7 under Calipari when leading by at least 10 points at any time in the contest.
• Hagans and Richards each reached the 20-point mark, the second time UK has done so this season against an SEC opponent. Quickley and Richards did it vs. Missouri
• The Wildcats are now 9-1 under Calipari when making one or fewer 3s
• The 89 points scored is the second-highest total of the season despite making just one 3-pointer
• Hagans extended his five-or-more-assists streak to 15 straight games, the best streak since Tyler Ulis did it 24 straight games in 2015-16
• In three career games vs. his home-state team, Hagans is averaging 19.7 points and 6.0 assists
• It was Montgomery’s first double-figure scoring game since a 25-point outing against Fairleigh DIckinson on Dec. 7
• Johnny Juzang scored a career-high six points in 18 minutes
• UK leads the series 129-26 and has won 14 in a row against the Bulldogs. UK leads 62-5 in games played in Lexington, including nine in a row
Wildcats Draw Tough Opponent for Big 12/12 Challenge
The Kentucky-Texas Tech matchup will headline the annual Big 12/SEC Challenge.
It will mark the Wildcats first trip to Lubbock, Texas, since 1966 and just the fifth matchup between the two teams in program history. The Wildcats are 4-0 against the Red Raiders, but the teams have not met since the 1994-95 season.
The 2020 slate of Big 12/SEC Challenge games will mark the seventh season of the annual event between the Southeastern Conference and the Big 12 and the fifth straight season where all 10 games of the challenge will be played on the same day. UK is 3-3 in the challenge but has won two straight.
Ten of the SEC’s 14 teams will participate in the 2020 challenge against all 10 of the Big 12’s institutions, with each conference hosting five games apiece. Six of the 10 SEC teams that will participate in the 2020 games played in the 2019 event as well with Auburn, Missouri, LSU and Mississippi State joining the even this season. The four SEC teams not participating will play each other in conference games the same day.
Texas Tech, boosted by a national runner-up finish a season ago, began the year ranked No. 13 in the country. The Red Raiders and Wildcats share one common opponent in Louisville, with both teams earning a win over the Cardinals. Texas Tech enters the matchup with the Wildcats as the No. 18/18 team in the country. Texas Tech fell to TCU, 65-54, on Tuesday.
Led by Jahmi’us Ramsey’s (15.5 points per game) offensively, it’s the Red Raiders’ defense that has been the key to their success. Texas Tech is ranked No. 8 in defensive efficiency, according to KenPom.com (through games played on Jan. 21), and it is limiting opponents to 61.8 points per game. Fifteen of the Red Raiders’ 18 opponents have not scored at least 70 points in a game this season.
Texas Tech has a defensive-turnover percentage of 24.5%, ranked 12th in the country, according to KenPom. Six players have generated at least 15 steals on the season.
SEC and Big 12 Honoring Mike Slive
The Southeastern and Big 12 conferences will unite to help bring awareness to the Mike Slive Foundation and its fight against prostate cancer during Big 12/SEC Challenge games on Saturday. All coaches and support staffs from both conferences will wear a Mike Slive Foundation lapel pin during their games. In addition, SEC coaches in non-Challenge games will wear the pin.
The Mike Slive Foundation was created by Slive following his retirement from the SEC in 2015. Inspired by his own fight with prostate cancer, he created the foundation to become a global leader in the fight to eradicate prostate cancer through public awareness and research funding.
Slive served as commissioner of the SEC from 2002 until his retirement in 2015. He led the adoption of a new and effective league-wide NCAA compliance initiative, engineered landmark television contracts, including the launch of the SEC Network, and guided the conference through expansion while the conference enjoyed unprecedented championship success under his leadership.
Prior to joining the SEC, Slive served as commissioner of Conference USA from 1995-2002 and the Great Midwest Conference from 1991-95.
A post shared by Kentucky Men’s Basketball (@kentuckymbb) on Jan 24, 2020 at 6:43pm PST
