Cats Show Will to Win March Demands

Kentucky’s room for error was minimal.

With the lead Vanderbilt had built and the way the red-hot Commodores were playing, the Wildcats were going to have to be close to perfect to complete the comeback.

So, John Calipari, how did the Cats do?

“They stuck together,” Coach Cal said. “No one broke off. Malik Monk on the far corner took a shot he didn’t need to take. Every other shot was what we were looking for.”

Otherwise, UK was fully locked in to the task at hand, which happened to be overcoming a 19-point first-half deficit to clinch a share of its 48th Southeastern Conference regular-season title. The No. 9 Cats (25-5, 15-2 SEC) pulled it off against Vanderbilt (16-14, 9-8 SEC) on Senior Night, 73-67.

“That’s how you’ve got to play basketball in March,” Calipari said. “You’ve got to fight and stick together.”

UK stuck together when there was plenty of reason not to. Shots weren’t falling for the Cats and they were for Vandy, but no one on the Kentucky sideline batted an eye.

“This team has a lot of fight,” said Isaiah Briscoe, who had seven points, seven rebounds and six assists. “Not one time in the huddle any of us ever thought that we were going to lose the game. We kept our heads high. Coach kept on encouraging us and when it came down to the end, and it was time to really win, we all came together as a team.”

Earlier in SEC play, UK might have folded when its most prolific outside shooters – Malik Monk and Derek Willis – missed open looks from the outside in going 0 for 5 from 3-point range in the first half. The Cats are past that now, confident in the fact that both will heat up.

True to form, Monk scored 20 of his 27 points after halftime and Willis drilled the 3 that gave UK its first lead with 4:47 left. 

“It was one of them nights where shots weren’t falling in the first half,” said Willis, who proposed to his girlfriend, Keely Potts, during pregame Senior Night festivities. “We started off slow and the Vandy players, they were running their patterns and got some open 3s. The corner 3s were killing us, but we just fight through it. It’s part of our culture. We have games like that. It’s just going to get us ready for tournament time. I feel like this is what it all comes down to.”

Willis’ 3 was his only basket of the night, but he provided a consistent presence on the glass and in protecting the basket with eight rebounds and three blocks. His fellow seniors were there with him, as Mychal Mulder scored five-first half points to help stem the Vandy tide and Dominique Hawkins spearheaded the full-court pressure that forced the Commodores into 10 second-half turnovers and 18 for the game.

“We just were trying put pressure on them,” said Hawkins, who said the “three or four” floor burns he sustained were par for the course. “We were trapping and scrambling all over the floor. That’s the type that you have to pressure, because when they move the ball good they execute their offense.”

Coach Cal said postgame that UK played like a “desperate” team in the second half to complete the largest comeback by a Wildcat team since 1994, fueled in large part by a raucous crowd of 24,036. The challenge, now, is finding a way to bring that mentality for a complete game.

“If you’re going to win in March, that’s what you have to play like, 40 minutes,” Calipari said. “What you saw in the second half. That’s who you’ve got to be, or you’re not winning.”

On the other hand, though, Tuesday was encouraging for what lies ahead. Adversity will strike over the next month. The Cats, on this night, showed they can withstand it.

“We’re going to play games in the SEC Tournament, the NCAA Tournament when a team comes out on fire (and) we’re down a quick 10, quick 12, maybe even 19 like today,” Briscoe said. “It’s how we come back in the game and how we continue to fight. Our will to win showed tonight.”