UNC Speed, Rebounding Stand Out to Kentucky

“You’ll hear him (Roy Williams say), ‘Get back!’ And you’ll hear me, ‘Get back!’ ” Calipari said. “We’ll both be yelling that probably 100 times a half. They’re fast. We’re fast.”

Kentucky (9-1) boasts the fourth-fastest offense in the country, according to KenPom.com’s average possession length measure, and North Carolina checks in less than a second slower with the 12th fastest offense in college basketball.

The matchup, in that sense, is reminiscent of UK’s game against UCLA earlier in the month, where the Bruins handed Kentucky just its fifth home loss in the Calipari era. UCLA scored 97 points that game. UNC is averaging 88.0 points per game and ranks directly behind the Bruins in terms of average possession length.

“We’re gonna have to figure out how to be efficient,” Coach Cal said. “The game we lost it was one-on-one basketball. The synergy you need – alright, they stopped us; now we gotta play. Now we gotta create for each other. We weren’t ready for that. Hopefully we’re a little more ready this time.”

North Carolina’s own efficiency will be greatly impacted by whether junior guard Joel Berry II will be available to play or not. Berry has missed each of UNC’s past two games with an ankle injury and his status is not yet known at the time of this writing. 

If available, the UNC point guard gives the Tar Heels a major boost with his 14.8 points and 41.9 percent 3-point shooting. His impact is so great that on his weekly radio show Calipari said it wasn’t especially beneficial to even look at the tape of UNC’s past two games – nine- and two-point home victories over Davidson and Tennessee, respectively – because the Tar Heels are such a different team without him.

“He’s definitely a good player,” said UK freshman Sacha Killeya-Jones of Berry. Killeya-Jones, a Chapel Hill, North Carolina, native, is familiar with many of the UNC players after playing pick-up games with them prior to committing to Kentucky. “He’s a good floor general and everything. He plays really smart.”

Against UCLA, Kentucky was outrebounded by three. More recently, in UK’s last game against Hofstra, the Wildcats were outrebounded by four, and were outscored 24-7 in second-chance points.

The Tar Heels will pose the stiffest test yet for the Wildcats when it comes to the battle of the boards. North Carolina has the greatest rebounding margin in the country at plus-14.8, and ranks first in the country in offensive-rebounding percentage.

“Their strength is that they can really get out and fly,” Calipari said. “Their other strength is that they’re really good in the post. They’re big and they fight for position. They try to have two feet in the lane or they seal you over the top. The third thing is that when they shoot it – are you ready for this – half of their misses they rebound for the season. … You shoot it because half of those you’re going to get back when you miss. You’re either making them or you miss and half of those you get. That’s why they shoot it quickly is because they rebound it.”

Leading the way on the glass for UNC is senior forward Kennedy Meeks and freshman forward Tony Bradley. Meeks, at 6-foot-10, 260 pounds, is enjoying the best season of his career, putting up career-highs in both points (12.5) and rebounds (9.3), and ranking 16th nationally in offensive-rebounding percentage. Bradley leads the country in offensive-rebounding percentage and averages 9.3 points and 6.5 rebounds in just 17.3 minutes per game.

Kentucky’s Achilles heel for much of the season has been defending the opposing team’s four-man. One idea for Calipari to combat North Carolina’ proficiency on the glass is to field a smaller, quicker lineup with four guards. 

In that scenario, Coach Cal said he may play 6-4 guard Mychal Mulder at the four position. After not playing at all against UCLA, Mulder is coming off back-to-back games in which he pulled down seven rebounds, including four offensive boards, against Valparaiso, and five rebounds against Hofstra.

Whether Mulder plays at the four or not, Calipari promised that he and his staff will “try everything.”

“I mean, we’ll try stuff, and that’s the greatest thing about not having to go game to game, ‘We gotta win,’ ” Coach Cal said. “This isn’t like the football season where if you lose this one, that one you’ve got no chance for a national title. That’s not what it is, but we have different things we have to try. I do want to give everybody a chance to prove either they should be playing or not. Coaches don’t make those decisions. Players make those decisions.”

Wildcats Use Late First-Half Spurt to Pull Away from Hofstra

Bluebloods Battle in Sin City