Kentucky Looking for 30th SEC Title, Faces Arkansas
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – For not really liking the Southeastern Conference Tournament, Kentucky head coach John Calipari sure does get his team to the championship game a lot.
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| Kentucky vs. Arkansas | ||
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Sun., March 12 – 1 p.m. ET |
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| Coverage | ||
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TV: ESPN |
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| UK | 2016-17 Team Stats | UA |
| 28-5 | Record | 25-8 |
| 16-2 | Conference Record | 12-6 |
| 86.1 | PPG | 80.2 |
| 71.8 | Opp PPG | 73.8 |
| .477 | FG% | .462 |
| .424 | Opp FG% | .418 |
| 40.2 | RPG | 36.6 |
| .353 | 3PT FG% | .368 |
| .309 | Opp 3PT FG% | .332 |
| .696 | FT% | .762 |
| 15.7 | APG | 14.3 |
| 6.1 | SPG | 7.5 |
| 5.3 | BPG | 4.8 |
Top-seeded Kentucky (28-5) will face Arkansas (25-8) on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET at Bridgestone Arena. It marks the seventh time in Coach Cal’s eight seasons that UK has advanced to the championship game. UK, the SEC Tournament’s two-time reigning champion, is 4-2 in the previous six games. The Wildcats are seeking their 30th SEC Tournament title in program history.
“You’re at the end, you might as well win it,” said senior forward Derek Willis, who has advanced to the finals every year. “I feel like I take a little sense of pride in that. I remember last year I hit a 3 (in the championship against Texas A&M) to put us up and that was a big moment for me. Just want to come out and win tomorrow.”
Because Kentucky, the eighth-ranked team in the country, is being talked about as a potential No. 2 seed in next week’s NCAA Tournament, the perception by some is that Kentucky may not care about these SEC Tournament games as much as other teams. Sophomore guard Isaiah Briscoe says not so fast.
“That’s not fair to say,” Briscoe said. “We care about the games too. Every team we play is the other team’s biggest game. I don’t think it’s hard to match their energy because we love playing basketball just like the other team does. And we don’t really worry about the other team. It’s a matter of us coming out with our energy and focusing on us.”
In the semifinals on Saturday, Kentucky got off to another one slow start that has occurred all too frequently of late. The Wildcats were able to erase a 10-point deficit and go into the halftime break with a lead, but know those starts must cease as the Big Dance approaches.
In third-seeded Arkansas, Kentucky faces a team that’s won eight of its past nine, including a 14-point win over a red-hot Vanderbilt team on Saturday that felt like even more.
“They’re a good team, but so are we,” Arkansas senior guard Dusty Hannahs said. “We’re playing really good basketball right now, and we’re ready to face anybody in the country. So it should be a great challenge tomorrow.”
In the two teams’ first and only meeting during the regular season on Jan. 7, Kentucky dominated the Razorbacks 97-71. The Wildcats led by just four points at halftime in that game, but outscored Arkansas 56-33 in the second half en route to 1.35 points per possession. UK hasn’t scored at a rate that high since.
Freshman point De’Aaron Fox scored 27 points on 10-of-16 shooting, his season high until Saturday’s 28-point effort against Alabama, and grabbed six boards to go with six assists. Senior forward Derek Willis scored 15 points, his second highest output during SEC play this season, on 6-of-8 shooting and knocked down three 3-pointers.
“He’s a very good basketball player, really quick, shifty,” Arkansas head coach Mike Anderson said of Fox. “We got to deal with numbers. We can’t do it with one-on-one with the guy. We got to build a wall and make him find somebody else. … I thought the Willis kid has always been a thorn in our side. He plays well against us for some reason.”
One might think Sunday’s championship game will mean a bit extra for freshman guard Malik Monk. Monk, a native of Lepanto, Arkansas, chose the Wildcats over his home-state school, the same school that his brother Marcus starred on the football team.
“No, sir,” Monk said. “Every team is the same. We’re really not worried about any team. We’re just focused on what Kentucky has to do. We’re focused on what Kentucky has to do and winning.”
One thing Coach Cal does like about the SEC Tournament is that it serves as another opportunity for his group to prepare for the NCAA Tournament and refine anything that needs “tweaking.” Their next and final opportunity to do that will be against another team that is destined to hear its name called on Selection Sunday.
“We are a team that’s trying to figure some stuff out,” Calipari said. “We’re pressing some, we’re doing some different kind of trapping. We’re still not like there yet, but we’re moving where I want us to go. We’ve rebooted about two weeks – more than that, probably three weeks ago and we’ve been tweaking and trying and, you know, the best thing I can tell you, I have really good players.”
