Defense Clicking as UK Faces Tennessee in Title Game
ST. LOUIS – It was impossible to know what Jarred Vanderbilt’s absence would mean for Kentucky.
The 6-foot-9 freshman had been a key cog as UK began to hit its stride late in the season, but an injury has kept him out of the Southeastern Conference Tournament.
True to his style, John Calipari didn’t overcomplicate things to compensate. After a couple wins, the approach certainly isn’t going to change.
“(Vanderbilt is) day to day, so each player on the team, Coach has been telling us, ‘You need to step it up a little bit, a little bit more here defensively,’ ” Wenyen Gabriel said. “Jarred’s a great rebounder, defender and I was just trying to give a little bit more in every part of the game. We’re going to need to keep doing that as a team to move on in the tournament.”
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| Kentucky vs. Tennessee | ||
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Sun., March 11 – 1 p.m. ET |
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| Coverage | ||
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TV: ESPN |
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| UK | 2017-18 Team Stats | UT |
| 23-10 | Record | 25-7 |
| 10-8 | Conference Record | 13-5 |
| 76.7 | PPG | 74.3 |
| 70.2 | Opp PPG | 66.1 |
| .469 | FG% | .441 |
| .407 | Opp FG% | .407 |
| 38.8 | RPG | 36.2 |
| .358 | 3PT FG% | .384 |
| .297 | Opp 3PT FG% | .316 |
| .693 | FT% | .755 |
| 13.6 | APG | 15.9 |
| 5.6 | SPG | 6.4 |
| 4.8 | BPG | 4.5 |
Rather than take steps back in St. Louis, the Cats have stepped up. Fourth-seeded UK (23-10) has scored a pair of double-digit wins to make their fifth straight trip to the SEC Tournament championship game, where they will face second-seeded league co-champion Tennessee (25-7) at 1 p.m. ET on Sunday at Scottrade Center. The Cats are in search of their fourth straight SEC Tournament championship and 31st overall.
“We’re definitely hitting our stride right at the time we need to be,” Sacha Killeya-Jones said. “We got a big game tomorrow, try to take home some hardware and get ready for the tournament, make a deep run.”
UK shot a scalding 16 of 19 (84.2 percent) in the second half of an 86-63 semifinal win over Alabama on Saturday, but nothing has been more important than defense this weekend. The Cats have held Alabama and Georgia to combined 33.3 percent shooting while allowing just 11 total assists, their fewest in a two-game span this season.
“Defensively, I think we’re all just coming together and playing off each other,” Killeya-Jones said. “The trust is there. We’re all trusting each other and our rotations are getting better. Help-side defense is really just taking it to another level. As that happens, teams are going to struggle to score against us.”
UK will be facing a team on Sunday in Tennessee that did anything but struggle to score on Saturday. The Volunteers scored 1.41 points per possession and shot 57.1 percent in an 84-66 win over Arkansas. Tennessee also swept two games against Kentucky in the regular season.
“Tennessee’s a really good team,” Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. “We played them twice; they beat us twice, at home and at their place. They got a bunch of talented guys and they play really hard. They’re a good team.”
The game will pit Coach Cal against his good friend Rick Barnes, the Tennessee head coach who knew even before his Saturday night film study that he is coaching against an improved team.
“They’re a totally different team than they were then,” Barnes said. “I’ve been watching them. They looked like—and John does such a great job. His teams always get better late in the year. It looks like they’ve really made a commitment to really play big, strong basketball inside. So I think tomorrow will be that kind of game. These guys are growing up. Like he kept saying all year, he needed time to grow up, and they picked a good time of year to do it.”
UK’s losses to Tennessee came a month apart on Jan. 6 and Feb. 6, the latter the second of a four-game losing streak that helped the Cats do that growing up.
“The best thing that happened to my team, not me personally, was the four losses in a row,” Calipari said. “Me, I was ready to jump off a bridge. But I knew and I told them, I’ve been through this before. They needed that. They needed to be told you’re not good enough, and you’re not going to do this by yourself. You’ve got to unpack your bags, and let’s get this together as a team and figure this stuff out.”
Coach Cal likes his team’s direction, but he knows that can change quickly, just as it did last weekend in a loss at Florida. Sunday offers an opportunity to take another step, and win another championship.
“What you’re seeing right now is these kids have committed to each other,” Calipari said. “They’re working really hard. But I don’t know what tomorrow brings.”
Wildcats Seeking Fourth Straight SEC Tournament Title
Kentucky will be the No. 4 seed in the annual Southeastern Conference Tournament when action begins Wednesday in St. Louis. The Wildcats, who earned the coveted double bye, will play the winner of Missouri and Georgia-Vanderbilt game on Friday in St. Louis, at approximately 3:25 p.m. ET in the quarterfinals.
Kentucky has never earned a seed lower than two (conference or division) under John Calipari and will play as the No. 4 seed for the first time during his tenure. The last time UK was the No. 4 seed in the SEC Tournament was in 2009.
The Wildcats went 1-1 vs. the Tigers, 1-0 vs. the Bulldogs and 2-0 vs. the Commodores. Missouri is the No. 5 seed, while Georgia is the No. 12 and Vanderbilt the 13th seed.
UK’s quarterfinal SEC Tournament game will be televised by the ESPN. If Kentucky wins Friday, it will play Saturday at 1 p.m. ET. Sunday’s championship game is scheduled for 1 p.m. ET. Both of the semifinals and championship game will be televised on ESPN.
Kentucky leads the league with 30 SEC Tournament titles, including five under Calipari. UK has captured each of the last three titles. The Wildcats are 130- 25 all-time in the SEC Tournament, including 43-11 in the quarterfinals. Kentucky is 11-1 all-time vs. Georgia in the SEC Tournament and 4-5 vs. Vanderbilt. The Wildcats and Mizzou have never met in the SEC Tournament.
It’s the first time in the history of the SEC Tournament that the city of St. Louis will host. Kentucky last played in the Scottrade Center during the memorable 2014 NCAA Tournament run. UK beat Kansas State in the opening round, before knocking off previously undefeated and the tournament’s No. 1 overall seed in Wichita State to advance to the Sweet 16.
