No. 10 Kentucky Hosts Tennessee State on Friday
Winners of four games in a row, the Kentucky Wildcats return to action on Friday, hosting Tennessee State at Rupp Arena.
No. 10 Kentucky (4-1) is coming off an 87-74 win over Winthrop on Wednesday afternoon in Lexington. PJ Washington paced the Cats with his second consecutive double-double (19 points, 11 rebounds). Washington had 19 points and a career-high 18 rebounds in Sunday’s win over VMI.
Kentucky had five players in double figures in Wednesday’s win over Winthrop, with Tyler Herro contributing 15 points, Keldon Johnson scoring 13, Quade Green 11 and Nick Richards 10.
Since falling in the season opener against Duke, Kentucky has won its last four contests, all by double digits. The Wildcats are averaging 86 points per game and are outrebounding opponents by an average of 18.8 boards per game.
 |
||
| Kentucky vs. Tennessee State | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Fri., Nov. 23 – 7 p.m. ET |
||
| Coverage | ||
|
TV: SEC Network |
||
| UK | 2018-19 Stats | TSU |
| 86.0 | PPG | 85.6 |
| 78.2 | Opp PPG | 73.4 |
| .495 | FG% | .448 |
| .467 | Opp FG% | .447 |
| 42.0 | RPG | 39.8 |
| .342 | 3PT FG% | .448 |
| .441 | Opp 3PT FG% | .293 |
| .766 | FT% | .684 |
| 15.6 | APG | 17.6 |
| 6.4 | SPG | 9.4 |
| 5.6 | BPG | 3.4 |
Washington now leads the team in scoring and rebounding on the season. The sophomore from Dallas scores 14.8 points per game, while pulling down an average of 8.8 rebounds. Johnson is second on the team in scoring, pouring in 14.4 points per game, while Reid Travis scores 13.8 points per outing. Those three players are all in the Top 15 in the SEC in scoring this season, giving UK a balanced scoring attack.
Herro is the fourth Wildcat averaging double figures in scoring, at 10.4 points per game.
Johnson and Travis are tied for second on the team in rebounding, at 5.6 boards per game. Freshman EJ Montgomery is next, averaging 5.4 rebounds per contest, while Richards pulls down 5.2 rebounds per contest.
After his seven-assist effort against Winthrop on Wednesday, Herro leads the team with a 3.4 assist per game average. Green and freshman Ashton Hagans average 2.6 assists per game.
The game against Tennessee State is the fourth and final game for UK in the Ohio Valley Hardwood Classic. In the event, Kentucky has beaten North Dakota (96-58), VMI (92-82) and Winthrop.
Tennessee State, a member of the Ohio Valley Conference, is 2-3 this season. The Tigers are coming off an 80-77 loss to Cal State Northridge on Tuesday. Donte Fitzpatrick-Dorsey leads TSU in scoring, averaging 16.3 points per game.
The Tigers are fifth in the country, making 12.2 three-point baskets per game, something Kentucky has struggled to defend all season.
The game is set for a 7 p.m. ET tipoff and can be seen on the SEC Network.
Kentucky Wins Fourth Straight with Win over Winthrop
Kentucky’s opposition — this time Winthrop — continued an early-season trend of burning the Wildcats from the 3-point line, but UK overcame 13 3-pointers from the Eagles with an efficient offense of its own to win Wednesday, 87-74. It was Kentucky’s fourth straight victory.
A game after allowing a school record 19 3-pointers vs. VMI, things didn’t get much easier for UK on the perimeter. Winthrop, yet another prolific 3-point shooting team, lived up to the scouting report by burying the long ball. But the Wildcats, specifically PJ Washington and Tyler Herro, were just better on this day.
Washington recorded his second straight double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds and Herro added 15 points and a career-high seven assists to build a big lead and eventually hold on. UK shot a season-best 56.4 percent from the floor, including a season-high seven 3-pointers, thanks in large part to great ball movement. UK made 31 field goals on a season-best 20 assists.
Kentucky also dominated on the glass and in the paint for the fourth straight game. UK controlled the boards 37-22 and outscored Winthrop in the paint 42-24. Kentucky is outrebounding its opponents by 23.8 boards per game during the four-game winning streak, the best four-game stretch under John Calipari.
UK led by as many as 26 points and was never truly threatened down the stretch despite a barrage of Winthrop treys. UK had runs of 8-0, 6-0 and 6-0 in the opening half for a 51-37 halftime lead.
Washington was the catalyst, making 7 of 11 from the field on the way to his fifth career double-double. His back-to-back double-doubles are the first consecutive double-doubles by a Wildcat since Bam Adebayo turned the trick during the 2017 NCAA Tournament.
Herro left the game briefly after taking a hard tumble in the first half but returned to make 6 of 14 with three 3-pointers. His seven assists are the most by a Wildcat this season.
Keldon Johnson added 13 points and seven rebounds, and Nick Richards had 10 points.
• UK improved to 3-0 in the Ohio Valley Hardwood Showcase with the finale set for Friday vs. Tennessee State
• The win marked the 47th consecutive home win over an unranked Associated Press poll nonconference opponent
• Kentucky is now 227-38 (.857) under John Calipari against unranked competition
• UK improved to 237-5 (.979) under Calipari when leading by at least 10 points at any point in the game
• Kentucky continues to earn a lot of free throws and is averaging 30.8 attempts per game and making an average of 23.6. The Cats sunk 18 of 24 (75.0 percent) in Wednesday’s win
Ohio Valley Hardwood Showcase Concludes Friday
Kentucky’s game vs. Tennessee State is the fourth and final game the Wildcats will play as a part of the Ohio Valley Hardwood Showcase.
The Ohio Valley Hardwood Showcase is a multi-team event. UK has already played North Dakota (W, 96-58), VMI (W, 92-82) and Winthrop (W, 87-74) as a part of the event.
Because the multi-team event includes a number of teams outside the four Kentucky is playing, no champion will be crowned.
Opponents Burning UK from Deep
John Calipari-coached teams are typically among the best in the country at defending the 3-point shot.
Dating back to 2008-09 (the first season the NCAA has 3-point field-goal percentage defense statistics readily available), Calipari’s last 10 teams (including his 2008-09 Memphis squad) have ranked in the top 100 in all but one season in 3-point field-goal percentage defense. Three of those have ranked in the top 10 and not a single team allowed opponents to shoot better than 32.6 percent from behind the arc.
As a matter of fact, if one factors in all of Calipari’s teams at UK, Memphis and UMass, only two teams have ever allowed the opposition to shoot better than 35.0 percent for a season and 14 of his prior 26 teams limited the opposition to 32.0 percent or less.
It’s been a different story this season.
Punctuated by VMI’s historic 3-point display on Sunday, a performance that included 19 3-pointers — the most ever by a Kentucky opponent — and 10 by Bubba Parham, opponents are making 46.7 percent of their shots against UK and making 11.2 3-point field goals per game. Kentucky’s .467 3-point field-goal percentage defense and its opponents’ .441 3-point scoring percentage both rank 345th out of 353 teams (rankings are through Tuesday’s games).
Winthrop followed the historic VMI performance with 13-pointers of its own, the third time in five games the opponent has made 12 or more from behind the arc.
In other words, it doesn’t just seem like Kentucky’s foes are making more perimeter shots than they normally do; they are.
The question Calipari and his staff have tried to figure out in recent days with the team is why? Outside the need to improve on defense, perhaps there are some other reasons.
First, it’s early in the season. Five games isn’t a large sample size, and if history tells us anything, the numbers will return to the median. If no other Calipari team has allowed opponents to shoot better than 32.6 percent from behind the arc, chances are that current number isn’t going to sustain.
The other could be the opponents. All five of Kentucky’s opponents have been 3-point-shooting-happy teams.
Four of the five foes UK has faced ranked in the top 54 in 3-point field goals made per game and four of the five are in the top 100 in 3-point field goal percentage. Sometimes a good offense just beats a good defense, and though Calipari would be the first to tell you the defense needs to get significantly better, part of the early-season perimeter struggles on defense could just be buzzard’s luck in scheduling good 3-point shooting teams.
The bad news is it doesn’t appear to be getting any easier. UK’s opponent on Friday, Tennessee State, comes into the game making 12.2 3-point field goals per game at a 37.7-percent clip. Those marks, through Tuesday’s games, ranked fifth and 78th in the country.
Cats Cleaning the Glass
Although this Kentucky team isn’t quite as long in the frontcourt as some of John Calipari’s more recent teams, it has rebounded the ball in dominating fashion over the last three games.
UK has corralled 73 offensive rebounds on the season and had snared 18 or more offensive rebounds in each of the last three games before grabbing seven vs. Winthrop.
That rate has propelled the Wildcats to first in KenPom.com’s rankings for offensive rebounding percentage at 46.8 percent (through games on Nov. 20). DePaul is the next closest team with a rate of 44.5 percent. The dominance on the offensive glass has enabled the Wildcats to average 15.0 second-chance points and 40.0 points in the paint during their four-game winning streak.
Kentucky is outrebounding its last four opponents by a combined 95 rebounds, an average of a plus-23.8 advantage on the glass per game. It’s the best four-game stretch under Calipari. For the season, UK is plus-94 (18.8 per game).
Five Wildcats are averaging 5.2 rebounds or more per game, but sophomores PJ Washington and Nick Richards have led the domination.
Against Southern Illinois, Richards gobbled up a career-high 19 rebounds — exactly what SIU totaled as a team — to help lift Kentucky to a plus-29 margin on the boards. It proved to be a difference maker against a veteran and pesky Saluki squad that led by as many seven midway through the second half. According to Big Blue History, a comprehensive fan website, it’s the first time in school history a UK player has recorded as many rebounds as the opponent.
Richards had nine boards on the offensive end — tied for the most in the Calipari era — and 10 on the defensive end. The 19 total boards were the most by a Wildcat since Michael Kidd-Gilchrist had 19 in a win over Louisville on Dec. 31, 2011.
Washington nearly matched Richards’ feat with a career-high 18 boards in the win over VMI. Washington corralled seven offensive boards and 11 on the defensive end as UK outrebounded the Keydets by a plus-21 margin, resulting in a 23-3 advantage in second-chance points.
The back-to-back games by Washington and Richards marked the first time since the 2011-12 season that two different Wildcats have hauled in 18 or more in the same season. Kidd-Gilchrist (19 vs. Louisville) and Anthony Davis (18 vs. Chattanooga on Dec. 17, 2011) were the last tandem to turn the trick.
Washington grabbed 11 rebounds vs. Winthrop.
