Cats Taking Ownership of Destiny ahead of Florida Game
John Calipari is a coach, not a conductor, but he turned a team film session on Thursday into choir practice.
The refrain? That’s on me.
“Yesterday, we watched the tape, the last 5:50 of the game, up seven and we just threw the ball to them for a breakaway layup,” Calipari said. “I made each of them say, ‘That’s on me.’ We did it in unison so they knew how to say it. Let’s do it together: ‘That’s on me.’ Louder, I didn’t hear that.”
Though the No. 18/16 Wildcats (14-4, 4-2 Southeastern Conference) didn’t have to sing, they did have to own up to the mistakes they made in a loss to South Carolina on Tuesday. Calipari wasn’t going to let them out of the room until they did. When a player mumbled the refrain, Calipari came back to him.
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| Kentucky vs. Florida | ||
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Sat., Jan. 20 – 8:15 p.m. ET |
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| Coverage | ||
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TV: ESPN |
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| UK | 2017-18 Team Stats | UF |
| 14-4 | Record | 13-5 |
| 4-2 | Conference Record | 5-1 |
| 77.7 | PPG | 82.0 |
| 70.0 | Opp PPG | 72.6 |
| .486 | FG% | .443 |
| .408 | Opp FG% | .437 |
| 38.1 | RPG | 36.5 |
| .350 | 3PT FG% | .397 |
| .290 | Opp 3PT FG% | .377 |
| .678 | FT% | .770 |
| 14.3 | APG | 13.9 |
| 6.3 | SPG | 7.4 |
| 5.4 | BPG | 4.8 |
“We all need to hear you say you’re responsible for that,” Coach Cal said. “You have to self-evaluate, and you can’t be defensive about how you’re playing. If you’re playing good, why are you playing good? Keep playing good. Can you take it to another level? Don’t be satisfied. If you’re playing bad, why are you playing bad? How can you change it? You can’t keep doing the same things over and over and think it’s going to change. That’s insanity.”
Don’t call the Cats crazy, because they seem to be taking Calipari’s message to heart.
PJ Washington, for one, was given a chance on Friday to make excuses. A reporter asked him whether Kentucky’s foul trouble and injuries made the loss a “throwaway game,” but Washington wasn’t biting.
“No, we definitely felt like we could have won that game,” Washington said. “So it wasn’t a throwaway game. We felt like—we were up (14) and we lost that game, so we definitely felt like we could have won that game.”
Nick Richards wasn’t interested in sugarcoating things either.
“You could tell we didn’t match their energy,” Richards said. “So, they came out strong, they came out more aggressive than us and it resulted in us not scoring in like eight minutes or something like that. It’s just one of those things you have to learn and just gotta move on from it. Just get ready for the next game.”
The next game, of course, comes Saturday as UK plays host to Florida at 8:15 p.m. Rupp Arena will be home to ESPN’s College GameDay beforehand for the live airing of the popular show, making UK-Florida the subject of the national spotlight.
“When you’re a high school kid and you’re just watching College GameDay, now you’re going to be a part of it,” Richards said. “It’s really a blessing to be honest. It’s going to be one of the most exciting times of my college career.”
The Gators will be looking to spoil the day for the Cats, and they’re more than capable. Florida (13-5, 5-1 SEC) is unranked, but sits atop the SEC standings having won seven of eight games. The Gators lost four games in a five-game stretch that started with their final game in the PK80 tournament, but have regained the form that made them a preseason favorite in the league.
“They’re a good team, they get after it, they play hard,” Calipari said. “They space the court. They’ll go at somebody they think they can beat on the bounce. They’re good. They shoot a ton of 3s. They’ll come in here and shoot 30 3s. And if they’re making 15, 20, then guess what? Who’s next? It’ll be a hard game.”
Not surprisingly considering their 39.7-percent shooting from 3, the Gators are fueled by an impressive backcourt that features Jalen Hudson, Egor Koulechov, Chris Chiozza and KeVaughn Allen. The four guards are averaging a combined 55.2 points and shooting 39.5 percent from 3.
Also not surprisingly, Coach Cal is less worried about the Gators than he is his own team.
“To be honest, I know how good they are,” Calipari said. “I’m concerned about we gotta get our mentality right, our approach to this right. You gotta have fun playing and coaching.”
That approach starts the moment the Cats wake up.
“The whole day is to get yourself into that frame of mind,” Calipari said. “Don’t go through shootaround and act like it doesn’t matter because then you play like the game doesn’t matter. Then all of a sudden, all of the other negative stuff comes with that. But we’ve got a good group. I’m excited about today. We made strides yesterday; let’s make them again today. Let’s get on that path.”
With Calipari asking each of his players to take responsibility for their role in getting on that path, he’s also doing the same himself. He can’t take the shot or make the pass, but it’s on him to put the players who can in the right positions.
“I’ve got a good team, I do,” Calipari said. “We’ve got some holes like every other team in the country, but we’ve got some things that other people do not have, and will not have. We have them here. Now we just — it’s my job to figure it out, and to get them to think differently. And if they don’t they cannot be on the court. You just can’t be out there.”
Cats Come Up Short at South Carolina
Kevin Knox scored 21 points and grabbed eight rebounds, but No. 18/16 Kentucky fell to South Carolina 76-68 on Tuesday night at Colonial Life Arena. Knox scored at least 20 points for the fifth time this season and also notched his 14th double-figure scoring effort.
Kentucky (14-4, 4-2 SEC) got 12 points from Nick Richards and 10 from PJ Washington, his fifth straight game in double figures.
Jarred Vanderbilt saw his first playing time of the season after missing the first 17 games with a left foot injury, and the freshman responded with six points, five rebounds and three assists in 14 minutes of action. Compounded by foul trouble — UK was whistled for 32 fouls, the second most of the Calipari era — his return was much needed as the Wildcats were once again shorthanded. Both Quade Green and Tai Wynyard missed action again because of back injuries.
The Wildcats hit 22 of their 49 field goal attempts (44.9 percent), but made only one of their 11 shots from behind the arc. UK was also hampered by 16 turnovers.
South Carolina jumped out to a 7-0 lead to begin the game, forcing Kentucky into an early timeout. The Gamecocks would lead by as many as nine, 21-12, before the Wildcats rallied. In fact, Kentucky would assemble a 14-3 run to take a 26-24 lead with 6:40 left in the half.
The teams traded leads for the rest of the half until Kentucky hit three free throws inside the stanza’s final minute to take a 37-34 lead into the break.
UK seemed to take control early in the second half, as a 15-4 run gave the Cats a 52-38 advantage with 13:25 remaining. The Wildcats had a 57-43 lead with 11:34 left in the game when South Carolina mounted its rally.
The Gamecocks would go on a 22-8 run to tie the game at 65 apiece with 4:02 left in the game. And South Carolina would continue its hot stretch, finishing the game on a 33-11 run to win by eight. Kentucky missed its last eight shots from the field and did not have a field goal in the final 6:12 of the game.
South Carolina’s Chris Silva led all scorers with 27 points, while Frank Booker added 18 for the Gamecocks.
NOTABLES:
• It was just the fifth time in 228 games under John Calipari that Kentucky lost a game in which it led by double figures
• UK fell to 10-2 when leading at halftime
• The game was riddled with fouls. The Wildcats’ 32 fouls were their most in a non-overtime game since Jan. 14, 1997. The game featured 59 fouls overall. It’s the most combined fouls in an SEC game to this point in the season and the most combined fouls in a non-overtime Kentucky game since the UK-Ole Miss game on March 5, 1999
• Three players fouled out. It’s the first time three players have fouled out since Jan. 30, 2016, at Kansas. Three other Wildcats were also in foul trouble with four fouls
• UK went 23 for 36 from the free-throw line, while South Carolina shot 25 of 38 from the charity stripe. South Carolina’s 25 makes are the most a Kentucky opponent has made since Tennessee sunk 30 on Feb. 2, 2016, and the 38 attempts are the most by a UK opponent since Kansas attempted 47 the game before, on Jan. 30, 2016
• The Wildcats’ one 3-pointer tied for the lowest mark of the Calipari era
• UK limited South Carolina to just 37.7 (23 of 61) percent shooting from the floor. It was the lowest field-goal percentage for an SEC opponent this season against the Cats. It was the lowest percentage by a UK opponent since Louisville shot 34.8 percent
• Knox reached 20 or more points for the first time since the Dec. 16 game vs. Virginia Tech
• Calipari is now 263-57 at Kentucky and remains tied with Tubby Smith for the third-most wins at UK, behind only Adolph Rupp (876) and Joe B. Hall (297)
ESPN College GameDay in Town
With the Florida-Kentucky game as its backdrop, ESPN College GameDay will be in Rupp Arena for Saturday’s game.
It’s the second straight season College GameDay will feature the Wildcats on their home floor. Saturday’s show will be the first College GameDay show of the season.
The ESPN College GameDay crew of Rece Davis, Jay Bilas, Jay Williams and Seth Greenberg will air its popular game-day show on ESPN starting at 11 a.m. inside Rupp Arena. The GameDay crew will preview the Florida-UK game, which will tip at 8:15 p.m. on ESPN. Bilas, Dan Shulman and Maria Taylor will be on the call for the game.
This will be UK’s 15th ESPN College GameDay appearance overall, behind only North Carolina (17), and the seventh trip to Lexington, Kentucky, tied with Duke and Kansas for the most trips to one venue. It’s the eighth straight season Kentucky is making an appearance on the show.
The most memorable trip was on Feb. 13, 2010, when a record 22,144 fans attended the show in John Calipari’s first season at Kentucky. Another 15,087 attended the morning GameDay show on Feb. 23, 2013.
With a 5-9 record in College GameDay appearances, the Wildcats will look to snap a four-game losing streak with the show in town.
The Florida-UK matchup seems like an appropriate game to tip off the College GameDay season. The two schools are among the favorites to win a much-improved Southeastern Conference. Some national analysts project as many as eight teams from the league to make the NCAA Tournament. Kentucky will enter the matchup just a game behind first-place Florida.
The Wildcats and the Gators have produced some memorable moments over the years, but the Wildcats own the overall edge in the series 100-38 and have won six of the last seven matchups.
This will mark the eighth College GameDay visit for the UK-Florida matchup. Only the Duke-North Carolina rivalry (nine games) has featured more College GameDay appearances. The Gators have won six of the seven matchups vs. the Wildcats on College Gameday, but five of the games have appeared on Florida’s home floor.
