Still Learning, Cats Return to Action vs. ETSU
Even in a losing effort, there were plenty of reasons for encouragement following Kentucky’s showdown with Kansas.
Twice the Wildcats fell behind, but twice they came back. Though they are John Calipari’s youngest team to date, the big stage of the State Farm Champions Classic didn’t overwhelm them.
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| Kentucky vs. East Tennessee State | ||
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Fri., Nov. 17 – 7 p.m. ET |
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| Coverage | ||
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TV: SEC Network |
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| UK | 2017-18 Team Stats | ETSU |
| 2-1 | Record | 1-1 |
| 0-0 | Conference Record | 0-0 |
| 69.0 | PPG | 69.5 |
| 65.7 | Opp PPG | 71.0 |
| .424 | FG% | .400 |
| .401 | Opp FG% | .364 |
| 37.7 | RPG | 43.5 |
| .297 | 3PT FG% | .245 |
| .307 | Opp 3PT FG% | .242 |
| .719 | FT% | .722 |
| 15.3 | APG | 11.0 |
| 7.0 | SPG | 8.0 |
| 6.0 | BPG | 7.0 |
Encouraging signs aside, the loss still weighed heavy on the players themselves. They wanted that game.
“Afterward we’re still thinking about the game,” Wenyen Gabriel said. “We’re a young team. We just think we should have won the game. We’re thinking about the slow start or a couple plays that happened near the end.”
A couple days later, disappointment had become purposefulness. In order for those encouraging signs so many – including Coach Cal – had seen to portend great things, it’s going to take work.
“I think it was a great game,” Hamidou Diallo said. “We didn’t come out with the W, but it was a good learning experience for us and we just gotta learn from it and get better and work on things that we didn’t do well during the game and try to get better for our next game coming up tomorrow.”
The next game for the No. 7 Wildcats (2-1) will come Friday at 7 p.m. ET against East Tennessee State (1-1). The Buccaneers – a 27-win NCAA Tournament team last season – evened their record Monday with 76-61 win over Savannah State behind a 28-point outburst off the bench by Devontavius Payne.
The idea for UK isn’t to become a finished product in the limited time the Cats have to prepare for ETSU. The idea, instead, is to take steps forward.
“I’ve got a great group,” Calipari said. “One of the things I want to tell them is I kind of thought we were going to get smashed up there. And at the beginning of the game, a lot of people thought we were going to get smashed up there. And these kids fought. We still don’t know what we’re doing. There are so many things that I needed to do in that game, but I’m trying to talk them through it.”
Even in the span of 40 minutes, UK’s growth is plain to see. Take rebounding for example. Through the first 20 minutes against Kansas, the Cats had been smashed on the glass, giving up 11 more rebounds than they grabbed themselves. After halftime, which presumably involved a stern talking-to from Coach Cal, they outrebounded Kansas by 11.
“I think it’s just the effort is one of the things, making a conscious effort,” Gabriel said. “A lot of times in your first big game there’s a lot of things running through your mind. Rebounding has to still be on your mind. You have to make a conscious effort there.”
Elsewhere, Calipari is taking responsibility. He hasn’t had time to teach his team how to deal with double teams in the post, which is why PJ Washington was held to just two points against Kansas. Neither has he gotten detailed with late-game execution, but that began to change on Thursday.
“We’re going to work on it today,” Calipari said. “I’m going to try a couple things. I want to see what works for this group and what guys are capable of. I’m still learning about them; they’re still learning about me. We’re going to do some different things today.”
Even still, effort and focus have to remain Coach Cal’s primary focus for now.
“This is gonna be a process, folks,” Calipari said. “We’ve all got to accept it – me more than you. I’ve gotta accept it. Gotta stay positive. The practices, I’ve gotta keep it real and be tough. I just have to stay positive during games, and I’m trying really hard to do that.”
Calipari’s approach is already paying dividends, particularly for the big group of freshmen he’s leading. Friday marks the next opportunity to see that process in action.
“It’s been a lot of growth, definitely,” Gabriel said of the freshmen. “Their confidence starts picking up more. Just the way we’re coming together as a team. Just see a lot of them come in as boys and start to become men as the time goes on. A lot of maturity starting to come on. We all face a lot of challenges here, just seeing how we bounce back from different challenges is really impressive.”
Calipari Inks Three for 2018 During Fall Signing Period
In what’s become somewhat of a fall tradition in college basketball and a celebration of riches in the Big Blue Nation, the Kentucky men’s basketball team has begun building one of the strongest recruiting classes in the country, signing three of the nation’s top players during the early fall signing period. Highly rated prospects Tyler Herro, Keldon Johnson and Immanuel Quickley have all inked national letters of intent with UK.
All three players are consensus four- or five-star prospects and all are ranked in the top 50 by the major national recruiting services. Although it’s still early in the recruiting process with a number of dominoes still to fall, national analysts once again believe UK’s class will be one of the top hauls for 2018.
“We’ve signed three really good players, really good kids who had a burning desire to be at Kentucky, which tells you they’ve got a toughness to them,” UK head coach John Calipari said. “They didn’t need to be begged; they wanted to be here. All three are guards, all three are tough, and all three have a fight and a skill about them. All three of them are gym rats – the kind of guys who come here and do well. All three are driven and wired the way you have to be to be successful here. They’re going to add to what we do.”
In every season in the John Calipari era, the Wildcats have signed a top-three recruiting class according to the Recruiting Services Consensus Index, which tallies major recruiting rankings and plugs them into a formula to calculate a consensus ranking.
At 6-foot-5, Herro has length, and now listed at 195 pounds by 247Sports, he’s quickly adding muscle to his frame. The shooting guard out of Whitnall High School in Greenfield, Wisconsin, averaged 23.9 points and shot 39 percent from 3-point range in his junior season in high school.
The top-ranked player out of Wisconsin, Herro is considered one of the top shooting guards in the 2018 class. A consensus four-star recruit, Herro is ranked as high as No. 27 in ESPN’s rankings, No. 38 by Rivals and No. 40 by 247Sports.
Herro was one of 54 players selected for the USA Basketball Junior National Team minicamp in October. He also averaged 14.8 points, 5.9 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game on the Nike circuit this past summer, shooting 36 percent from 3-point range.
A 6-6 shooting guard out of Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Virginia, Johnson is a consensus five-star player and one of the best in the class of 2018. A native of South Hill, Virginia, he previously played for Huntington Prep in Huntington, West Virginia, before transferring to Oak Hill for the 2017-18 season.
Johnson is ranked as high as the No. 7 overall prospect by ESPN, including third at his position. 247Sports ranks him as the nation’s No. 11 overall player, while Rivals has him at No. 18.
He led his Boo Williams (Va.) AAU team to the semifinals of the Peach Jam after averaging 20.7 points, 8.5 rebounds and 3.1 assists during the Nike regular season. Johnson took home MVP honors at the NBPA Top 100 Camp in June. Like Herro, Johnson was one of 54 players selected for the USA Basketball Junior National Team minicamp in October.
A 6-4 guard out of the John Carroll School in Bel Air, Maryland, Quickley is a consensus five-star prospect. Considered a consensus top-three player at his position, he’s ranked as high as No. 10 by Rivals, No. 12 by ESPN and No. 13 by 247Sports.
In his junior season at John Carroll, Quickley averaged 23.7 points and 7.2 assists. He scored 30 or more in five games, 20 or more in 14 games and finished with eight double-doubles. He also averaged 25.7 points, 4.7 rebounds and shot 42.1 percent from 3-point range in the Adidas Summer Championships in July.
Quickley was a member of the 2017 USA Men’s U19 World Cup Team that competed in Cairo. Playing under Calipari, Quickley averaged 6.7 points and 2.4 assists in 18.3 minutes per game. He was named the Baltimore Sun Metro Player of the Year in 2016.
No. 7 Cats Fall Just Short Against No. 4 Jayhawks
Kevin Knox scored a career-high 20 points and Hamidou Diallo added 14, but No. 7/4 Kentucky came up just short, falling to No. 4 Kansas 65-61 on Tuesday night in the Champions Classic in Chicago.
UK shot 41.8 percent (23 of 55) from the field, but held Kansas to just 24 of 68 (35.3 percent) from the field. The Jayhawks were able to make eight shots from behind the arc, compared to just three for the Wildcats.
Sacha Killeya-Jones came off the bench to score eight points and grab nine rebounds for the Cats. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had six points, four rebounds and three assists in the game.
Kentucky fell behind early in the first half when Kansas used an 11-0 run to turn a tie game into an 18-7 advantage. The Jayhawks led 20-9 before the Wildcats put together a run of their own. When Knox hit a 3-pointer with 8:49 left in the half, Kentucky had cut the lead to 23-20.
The Wildcats tied the game at 28-28 on a long jumper by Wenyen Gabriel. Kentucky would grab its first lead of the game a bit later when Gabriel hit one of two from the line, giving the Cats a 33-32 advantage. Kansas scored 14 seconds later, and neither team would score for the rest of the half, as the Jayhawks took a 34-33 lead into the break.
In the second half, the teams traded leads early before Kansas took a 51-45 lead with 9:16 left in the contest. But the young Wildcats would not go away, as Kentucky scored the next six points to tie the game at 51-51 with 6:48 to go.
With 3:38 to go, Kentucky took the lead on a layup by Nick Richards, giving the Cats a 57-55 advantage. But Kansas scored the next six points, and Kentucky could only get within two before falling by four.
• Kentucky hauled in a season-high 39 rebounds and was plus-11 in the rebound margin in the second half after Kansas owned a plus-11 margin in the opening stanza
• UK committed a season-high 18 turnovers, which Kansas turned into 17 points
• Knox is the fourth Wildcat freshman to score at least 20 points in a Champions Classic game (Alex Poythress vs. Duke in 2012, Julius Randle vs. Michigan State in 2013 and Malik Monk vs. Michigan State in 2016)
• Kentucky blocked a season-high 10 shots. PJ Washington (four) and Killeya-Jones (thre) had career highs in the category
• Gilgeous-Alexander had a game-high three steals. He’s had at least two steals in all three games this season
Bounce Back
The Wildcats don’t lose very often during the John Calipari era, but when they do, they almost always bounce back.
UK is 38-8 under Calipari following a loss. Kentucky’s back-to-back losses to Kansas and Tennessee in 2016-17 were its first since also losing back-to-back games at Kansas and at Tennessee in 2015-16.
The Wildcats have only lost back-to-back games eight times during the Calipari era and they’ve never lost three in a row with Calipari on the sidelines — including avoiding a three-game skid despite trailing by 14 to Georgia in the first half on Jan. 31, 2017. The last time UK lost three games in a row was in February 2009 when the Wildcats dropped four straight games to end the regular season.
