Kentucky Attempts to Avoid Letdown Following Big Win
The overriding theme following Kentucky’s improbable 17-point comeback victory at West Virginia on Saturday was that the young Wildcats had grown up before everyone’s eyes, or were at least full-on in the process of doing so.
Growing up, however, is never a process that doesn’t involve a hiccup or two. Because the Wildcats showed marked improvement not only in their play, but in their understanding of what head coach John Calipari has been asking them to do, it doesn’t mean they won’t revert the next game.
That next game comes Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET in Rupp Arena against a Vanderbilt Commodores squad (8-13, 2-6 Southeastern Conference) the Cats defeated less than three weeks earlier in Nashville, Tennessee.
“Told them (Sunday), ‘You guys, you can’t get arrogant about this,’ ” Calipari said on Monday. “So, just to tell them – you know, (there) can’t be an arrogance here. You guys fought. You played with unbelievable spirit in the second half and you beat a really good team on the road. Now you’ve got to build on it.”
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| Kentucky vs. Vanderbilt | ||
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Sat., Jan. 31 – 9 p.m. ET |
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TV: ESPN |
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| UK | 2017-18 Team Stats | VU |
| 16-5 | Record | 8-13 |
| 5-3 | Conference Record | 2-6 |
| 77.3 | PPG | 71.3 |
| 69.9 | Opp PPG | 71.8 |
| .477 | FG% | .427 |
| .402 | Opp FG% | .447 |
| 39.3 | RPG | 34.6 |
| .350 | 3PT FG% | .324 |
| .285 | Opp 3PT FG% | .331 |
| .689 | FT% | .731 |
| 14.2 | APG | 12.3 |
| 6.0 | SPG | 4.9 |
| 5.4 | BPG | 3.6 |
That fight came over the final 17 minutes of the second half Saturday when Kentucky (16-5, 5-3 SEC) erased a 17-point deficit against the then-No. 7/7 Mountaineers, a team known for its physicality and grit, and left with a seven-point victory.
UK outscored WVU 50-28 in the second half and outrebounded the Mountaineers 29-13 over the final 20 minutes. Jarred Vanderbilt, playing in the fourth game of his collegiate career, epitomized that fight, snagging 11 boards in just 11 minutes.
“He’s a crazy athlete and he just plays hard,” said Sacha Killeya-Jones of Vanderbilt. “… He knows, right now, the one thing he can control is how hard he plays and he’s doing a great job with that. Eleven rebounds in 11 minutes is insane. That’s one of the reasons we won the game.”
While his opening 49 minutes have been a struggle on offense, Vanderbilt’s energy, fight and hustle have been a major boon to the Wildcats’ mentality, and he has also been a key to the UK bench.
Calipari was coaching with his hands tied earlier in the season due to having just seven available scholarship players. If a player wasn’t displaying the necessary fight on the court, Coach Cal’s options were limited as to how he could alleviate the situation. That isn’t the case anymore.
PJ Washington’s knee was bothering him against the Mountaineers, forcing him to play somewhere between “80-90 percent” of himself. Against a top-10 opponent in a raucous environment, that wasn’t enough for UK to complete the comeback.
“Either you’re bringing it or we’ve gotta go without you,” Coach Cal said. “The good news now is with a full roster we can do that. It was hard when you were playing six and seven guys and two were in foul trouble and you’ve got five guys. That made it tough.”
That competitive spirit for minutes has also increased the Wildcats’ practice sessions. With Coach Cal moving to a rotation subbing pattern, players are having to hold each other accountable to play hard or sit on the bench.
“This is your responsibility to play with spirit, play with passion,” Coach Cal said. “If you’re not going to do that you’re out. It’s your responsibility together collectively to make this game easy for each other.”
The Commodores come into Tuesday night’s game off an impressive three-point victory over TCU in the Big 12/SEC Challenge. Vandy senior guard Matthew Fisher-Davis is out for the season with a shoulder injury, but his backcourt mate Riley LaChance has stepped up in his absence, averaging 25.0 points per game over the last three games and knocking down four 3-pointers in each of those games.
LaChance, of course, had an opportunity to narrow UK’s lead to one point with 34 seconds left in the two teams’ prior meeting, but missed three straight free throws after being fouled on a 3-point attempt.
“I haven’t ever seen anything like that before,” Killeya-Jones said. “That also means he’s going to come in and try to make up for that.”
Kentucky, which had been highly criticized after losing two straight games prior to defeating Mississippi State and West Virginia last week, are now back to receiving praise from all corners of the college basketball world.
In October, Alabama football head coach Nick Saban famously referred to positive press clippings as “rat poison” for his players. Will the Cats succumb to it?
“We knew everybody was talking down and it would just take a couple good wins to show what kind of team we really are,” Killeya-Jones said. “We knew from there it would shift, but that’s not something we’re concerned with. We’re concerned with the guys in our locker room and keep building and keep improving on that.”
Killeya-Jones’ answer is a good one and the mindset is correct, but putting those words into practice is an entirely different matter.
“You talk about it, but we don’t know until the game is – you throw the ball up and we see if they understand that’s how you have to attempt to play every game,” said Calipari, referring to his team’s game at WVU. “That kind of fight.”
Knox Scores 34 to Help UK Overcome 17-Point Deficit in Road Win at No. 7 West Virginia
Freshman forward Kevin Knox scored 19 of his season-high 34 points in the second half and Kentucky overcame a 17-point deficit to beat No. 7/7 West Virginia 83-76 on the road in the Big 12/SEC Challenge on Saturday night. Hamidou Diallo added 13 points for Kentucky (16-5), which made all 18 of its free throw attempts after halftime.
Knox offset a strong performance from WVU’s Jevon Carter, who finished with 26 points for West Virginia (16-5). James ”Beetle” Bolden added 17 points and Sagaba Konate had 13 points and seven blocked shots for the Mountaineers.
UK fell behind 10-3 in the opening minutes, trailed by 15 at halftime and was faced with the unenviable task of overcoming a 17-point deficit with 17 minutes to play. Every time, it was Knox the Cats turned to. He made 11 of 17 field goals, 5 of 8 3-pointers and 7 of 8 free throws, and he did it all while committing just one turnover against West Virginia’s vaunted pressure defense.
For every huge shot from beyond the arc, Knox had another physical finish at the rim. When UK was floundering in the opening minutes, Knox delivered a pair of rim-rattling dunks to steady the ship. When the Cats needed to make a run to get back in the game early in the second half, Knox scored 12 points to key a 21-2 spurt, the last two coming on a dunk to give a 58-56 lead.
Then, when West Virginia clawed back to a 74-all tie in the final 90 seconds, it was Knox who drilled the go-ahead 3 to put UK up for good.
It marked the third time in five games that West Virginia has blown a double-digit lead in the second half. It was the third-largest halftime deficit comeback on the road in program history for UK. It also marked Kentucky’s largest deficit overcome in a win against an opponent ranked in the top 10 of the Associated Press Poll (17 points) since Mar. 22, 1998, vs. Duke in the NCAA Tournament South Regional finals (18 points).
NOTABLES:
• Kentucky committed 11 turnovers in the first half. That was the fifth time this year UK committed 11 turnovers in the first half
• UK used a 22-4 stretch over 6:28 to take its largest lead at 62-58 in the second half. Kentucky outscored West Virginia 50-28 in the second half
• Kentucky came all the way back to win from a 17-point deficit for the first time since a 73-67 win over Vanderbilt on Feb. 28, 2017. That game saw the Cats down 19 points in the first half.
• The Wildcats’ comeback from a 15-point halftime deficit was the third-largest halftime comeback in school history. UK rallied from a 16-point halftime deficit at LSU on Feb. 15, 1994, for a 99-95 victory in what’s known as the Mardi Gras Miracle. The Wildcats also rallied from a 16-point halftime deficit at No. 13 Louisville on Dec. 18, 2004
• It marked just the second time in school history that an unranked Kentucky team has won a nonconference true road game against an opponent ranked in the top 10 of the AP Top 25. Unranked UK defeated North Carolina on the road on Dec. 2, 2000
• West Virginia shot 39.7 percent from the field, the fifth straight game that UK has held the opponent under 40 percent. That’s the first time that’s happened since late in the 2015-16 season
• UK outrebounded West Virginia 49-34. The Wildcats are 15-1 this season when winning the battle of the boards
• Knox’s 34 points are the most by a Wildcat this year and most by a UK player since De’Aaron Fox scored 39 vs. UCLA in the NCAA Tournament last March. It’s the most points for a UK player on the road since Malik Monk had 34 points at Ole Miss to begin the SEC season last year
• Wenyen Gabriel had a career-high-tying three blocked shots to go along with six points and nine rebounds
• Nick Richards had nine points and eight rebounds, most of his damage coming in the second half
• Jarred Vanderbilt had a career-high and game-high 11 rebounds in just 11 minutes
• Kentucky is now 2-3 all-time in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge but helped the SEC to the conference’s first win in the challenge
• UK made its 16th appearance on ESPN’s College GameDay and improved to 6-10 when featured on the weekly show
• The win against West Virginia is just UK’s second in its last 13 tries on the road against a top-10 opponent, according to ESPN’s Stats and Info.
Knox Named SEC Freshman of the Week
Kevin Knox had a monster week with two games of 19 or more points, including a career-high and UK season-high 34 points in a road win at No. 7/7 West Virginia on Saturday, en route to being named Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Week on Monday.
Knox averaged a team-high 26.5 points per game over the two victories while shooting a blazing 69.6 percent from the field and 75.0 percent from behind the arc. He also chipped in with an 85.7-percent rate from the free-throw line. Knox hit four or more 3-pointers in both games, including a career-high five in the win against the Mountaineers.
He’s the first UK player to score 30 or more points this season and the first since De’Aaron Fox had 39 in a win over UCLA in the Sweet 16 in the 2017 NCAA Tournament. The 34 points are the most for a UK player on the road since Malik Monk had 34 at Ole Miss to open SEC play a season ago. They’re also the most by a UK freshman in a non-conference true road game. Knox also contributed 6.5 rebounds a game, the second-best mark on the team. He had six or more snares in both games.
Knox has emerged as Kentucky’s leading playmaker, leading the team in scoring (15.5 points per game), 3-pointers (34) and minutes per game (32.5 per game). The Tampa, Florida, native has led the Wildcats in scoring a team-high seven times and has scored in double figures in a teambest 16 games, including six performances of 20 or more points. A 6-foot-9 forward with an ability to play like a guard, Knox is shooting 46.4 percent from the floor and 35.4 percent from 3-point range.
The SEC honor is the first of Knox’s career. It’s Kentucky’s third SEC honor of the season. Hamidou Diallo and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander previously won SEC Freshman of the Week.
