UK Continues Learning Process with Kansas Showdown
A message to all dogs, cats and alligators: beware of Coach Cal.
The Hall of Fame head men’s basketball coach at Kentucky has compared coaching a team largely consisting of freshmen to having a root canal performed. He’s said he’s had his hands and feet on the proverbial panic button multiple times.
And if he’s ever at a zoo anytime soon it may be best to have the animals hide.
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| Kentucky vs. Kansas | ||
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Tue., Nov. 14 – 9:30 p.m. ET |
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TV: ESPN |
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| UK | 2017-18 Team Stats | KU |
| 2-0 | Record | 1-0 |
| 0-0 | Conference Record | 0-0 |
| 73.0 | PPG | 92.0 |
| 66.0 | Opp PPG | 56.0 |
| .426 | FG% | .600 |
| .430 | Opp FG% | .328 |
| 37.0 | RPG | 45.0 |
| .333 | 3PT FG% | .429 |
| .319 | Opp 3PT FG% | .348 |
| .739 | FT% | .727 |
| 16.0 | APG | 23.0 |
| 7.0 | SPG | 8.0 |
| 6.0 | BPG | 7.0 |
“Kicking dogs, throwing cats,” Coach Cal said facetiously Monday morning. “No, I’m dying here. I got a noose around my neck, I’m holding onto a rope, my hands are bleeding, I’m kicking alligators and I’m coaching freshmen.”
It’s quite the visual – and obvious hyperbole – but it also speaks to the trials and tribulations that the 2017-18 Wildcats will inevitably go through during the season. What with a 10-point win over Utah Valley and a four-point nail-biter against Vermont already under their belts, the learning process is well underway.
Following his team’s season-opening win over Utah Valley on Friday, Calipari said his team was so young it didn’t know what a shootaround was.
“They think a shoot around is let’s go shoot hooks,” he said.
So the key for both the Kentucky players and the head coach is the same, enjoy the process.
“I told the guys prior to last night, ‘You have to enjoy learning.’ ” Calipari said. “What I’ve got to do is be tough on them in these practices. Then I’ve got to really be as positive as I can, but I’m going to tell them, ‘If there’s something I’m telling you to do, and you choose not to do it, I have a right now to let you know about it. But as long as you’re fighting, you’re trying to do the right things – things are gonna happen. Cover for each other, talk to each other, and just keep learning about each other.’ “
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said Friday night that Calipari is, indeed, calmer during games than practices.
“I thought he was going to be crazy all the time,” Gilgeous-Alexander said, “but he’s a little more chill in games.”
The next game will test both teacher and pupils, as Kentucky will face No. 4/3 Kansas (1-0) on Tuesday in the State Farm Champions Classic at the United Center in Chicago.
The Jayhawks are led by senior guard Devonte’ Graham, a legitimate national player of the year contender who had 10 points, seven rebounds and 12 assists in Kansas’ season-opening win over Tennessee State.
Graham, at 6-foot-2, knocked down a team-high 94 3-pointers last season and shot 38.8 percent from the perimeter. The year before that, he hit 75 3-pointers and shot 44.1 percent from deep. His elite ability to shoot from the outside makes him that much more difficult of a matchup for Kentucky’s young point guards, who struggled Sunday afternoon staying in front of Vermont point guard Trae Bell-Haynes.
“We’re just getting beat on the dribble by everybody,” Calipari said. “And you can’t – defense starts on the ball. It always has. And if you can’t guard the ball it’s hard to keep you in.
“What he’ll do is shoot a 3 at any point, which means then you start playing him and he can get by you,” Calipari said later. “It’s going to be a hard game for us. It’s not just him. … But Graham is the one that stirs their coffee. He’s the guy. He’s the one that creates all that’s being created out there. It’s through him.”
Kentucky will go over film in Lexington of itself as well as Kansas. The Cats will then go through a walkthrough at the Joe Craft Center before boarding a flight to Chicago where they will have a practice. Each step of the way Monday will be another learning experience as they prepare for their first matchup against a ranked opponent this season.
Tuesday’s showdown will mark Kentucky’s third game in just five days. It’s a frantic start to the season, but Calipari was thankful for how Sunday’s win over Vermont went down, calling it a “a great game” for his team to play in.
But as he walked off the court at Rupp Arena on Sunday, Calipari could only laugh while thinking back to the earlier days of his coaching career at UMass. Then, he, like Vermont, had a team littered with upperclassmen rather than a starting lineup of five freshmen.
“I said I missed those days, coaching juniors, seniors,” Calipari said. “Execution, everything’s done, and they’re in the right position and taking charges. That’s who they were. Then we got a freshman team that started the game again. We played OK, but we made like four – like, why wouldn’t you just do this? ‘They had five guys back. Don’t keep going. They have five guys there. Do not keep going.’ We did. It’s just stuff we can teach.”
Cats Lead the Champions Classic Pack
Kentucky will take on Kansas in the seventh edition of the State Farm Champions Classic. This year’s matchup will take place in the United Center in Chicago. Kentucky boasts the best record of all of the bluebloods in the event with a 4-2 mark, including victories in the last two games.
• Duke and Michigan State are tied with a 3-3 record and Kansas has a 2-4 mark
• This will be the third meeting between the Wildcats and the Jayhawks in the Champions Classic but the first since UK throttled Kansas 72-40 in 2014 in Indianapolis. The Wildcats are 2-0 vs. the Jayhawks in the Champions Classic
• Although UK has a 2-0 record vs. Kansas in the Champions Classic, the Jayhawks have won the last two meetings overall, having defeated Kentucky in back-to-back seasons in the Big 12/SEC Challenge
• Kentucky is 1-1 in the Champions Classic when the game is played in the United Center
Wildcats Hold Off Pesky Catamounts
Hamidou Diallo scored 16 points and No. 5/4 Kentucky held off Vermont 73-69 on Sunday. The Wildcats, playing their second game in three days to open the season, missed seven of their last eight field goals but held off a late surge by the Catamounts. Trailing 72-69, Vermont missed two 3-pointers in the final 30 seconds. Washington made one of two free throws with less than a second left for the final margin.
Kentucky (2-0) trailed by 12 in a season-opening win over Utah Valley in the first half, but the Wildcats got off to a better start against the Catamounts and made five of their first nine shots and never trailed after Vermont scored the first basket of the contest.
Diallo led the Wildcats with 18 points in the opener and picked off where he left off against the Catamounts, who are expected to be an NCAA Tournament team for the second season in a row. Diallo finished with 16 points and scored 13 of those in the first half. Diallo’s 3-pointer, Kentucky’s first of the contest, gave the Wildcats a 36-24 lead at the break.
PJ Washington led Kentucky with a career-high 16 points. Washington scored nine points in the first half. Washington and Diallo combined for nine of Kentucky’s 14 field goals in the opening half. Quade Green had 15 and Kevin Knox finished with 11.
Vermont, which finished 29-6 last season and hadn’t lost a regular-season game since an 81-69 setback to Butler last December, was led by Trae Bell-Haynes with 16 points. Anthony Lamb scored 15, Drew Urquhart had 13 and Ernie Duncan added 10.
• Kentucky shot 78.3 percent at the foul line, making 18 of 23
• The Wildcats won the rebounding 36-27, leading to a 10-4 advantage in second-chance points
• UK has had at least three players with three or more assists in both games this season
• Washington had 10 rebounds in addition to his 17 points, the first double-double by a Wildcat this season. Washington’s final rebound with less than a second to play clinched the win
• Diallo has scored 16 or more in both UK wins this season
The Cal-Zone?
John Calipari isn’t shy in voicing his aversion to zone defenses. The way he explains it, it doesn’t hold players personally accountable like man-to-man defense does and it isn’t the defense his players will have to play if they are fortunate enough to make it to the NBA.
But, as Calipari conceded after comeback victory vs. Utah Valley that was fueled by his surprising move to go to a 2-3 zone in the second half, he also has a responsibility to win, and the best way to do that with this team given its length may just be to use a zone.
It’s a small sample size, but when the Wildcats went to the zone against the Wolverines, it flipped the game. UK exclusively used a 2-3 zone during a game-changing 18-0 run that turned a 12-point deficit into a six-point UK lead it would never relinquish.
During the run, the Wildcats forced four turnovers and held Utah Valley without a field goal for 4:19 of game time. The Wildcats eventually mixed up the defense with some man defense later in the half (using both later in the game, Kentucky had another stretch of 5:34 where it held the Wolverines without a made shot), but Utah Valley couldn’t crack the Wildcat D from that point forward.
Calipari, who has always entertained but never really bought into using a zone during his nine seasons at UK, admitted after the Utah Valley win that this may be the team that finally forces him to use it more.
“The issue becomes I have a responsibility to teach these kids how to play pick-and-roll defense, how to stay in front of people, man-to-man,” Calipari said after the Utah Valley game. “I mean, from here on there is no more zone. I mean, they’re going to have to learn. But I also have a responsibility to win, so I’ll play as much as I have to, to win a game. … Whatever this team needs, I’m going to have to do.”
Despite the zone working to its favor in the win over Utah Valley, UK did not turn to it at all in a win over Vermont.
