Cats, Cougars Set to Meet in Sweet 16
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – John Calipari knew Houston well back when he was at Memphis.
He’s having to adjust to this new iteration of the Cougars Kelvin Sampson has built.
“I’m just—I’m amazed,” Coach Cal said. “Ten, 12, 13 years ago, we were going to Houston to play, to see it where it is now, now it’s incredible what they’ve done.”
As Calipari built Memphis into a powerhouse in his final years before arriving at Kentucky, his Tigers frequently faced Houston. Over his final four seasons there, Memphis swept 10 games against the Cougars by an average 12.6 points.
The team Calipari’s second-seeded Kentucky Wildcats (29-6) are about to take on in the Elite Eight is a whole different animal. These third-seeded Houston Cougars (33-3) are for real.
“Their players, they’re not afraid,” Calipari said. “They have a swagger about them. They play with unbelievable energy. They defend like crazy and they rebound. Every basketball they attempt to rebound.”
Houston has won 20-plus games in each of the four seasons and reached the NCAA Tournament in the last two, culminating in a 2018-19 season that has seen the Cougars win more games than any team in the country. Defense, as Calipari suggested is their primary calling card.
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| Kentucky vs. Houston | ||
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Fri., March 29 – 9:59 p.m. ET |
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TV: TBS |
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| UK | 2018-19 Stats | UH |
| 29-6 | Record | 33-3 |
| 15-3 | Conference Record | 16-2 |
| 76.4 | PPG | 75.8 |
| 64.5 | Opp PPG | 61.0 |
| .478 | FG% | .447 |
| .400 | Opp FG% | .366 |
| 38.5 | RPG | 41.1 |
| .359 | 3PT FG% | .355 |
| .344 | Opp 3PT FG% | .278 |
| .744 | FT% | .702 |
| 13.6 | APG | 14.9 |
| 6.0 | SPG | 6.5 |
| 4.8 | BPG | 4.4 |
Houston ranks first in the country in effective field-goal percentage, allowing opponents to make 27.8 percent of their 3s and 42.7 percent of their 2s. The Cougars have given up 61.0 points per game on the season, the sixth-best total in the nation.
“Defense is just guarding a series of actions,” Sampson said. “What actions are we guarding? Is it a pick and roll team, is it a pin down team or screen down team? Are they a motion team? What is their primary offense? Your kids’ ability to stay disciplined during the course of whatever action it is that the shot clock, we really work at that.”
The work has undoubtedly paid off, as the Cougars, in spite of being relatively undersized, have collectively become a defensive force to be reckoned with.
“They play great defense,” Tyler Herro said. “They’re athletic inside, their guards are good. They got great help-side, they play hard, and that’s what it comes down to. I think we’re going to have to run our offense hard and make shots.”
The Cougars count three seniors and a junior among their starters, a group headlined by the dynamic Corey Davis. Davis is averaging 17.1 points per game and he does not seem eager to see his college career end.
“We know we’re coming into the game as underdogs,” Davis said. “We have to play like our lives are depending on it. We have a lot we’re playing for. We just love this group we’re with. We have to come in and just buy into the entire game for 40 minutes.”
As good as they have been all season, the Cougars have heard frequently about the contrast in tradition between UK and Houston. Houston has not reached the Sweet 16 since playing in back-to-back national championship games in 1983 and 194, while UK is playing on the NCAA Tournament’s second weekend for the eighth time in 10 seasons under Coach Cal.
“Out of 352 schools, everybody can be beaten and they (Kentucky) are just another team,” senior big man Breon Brady said. “We’re not playing ‘Kentucky,’ we’re playing (Ashton) Hagans, Reid Travis and (PJ) Washington. At the end of the day, if we stick to our principles, it’s going to be a good game and the world’s going to see what’s going to happen.”
The stakes are a bit higher this time around, but their opponents taking such an approach is hardly a new thing for the Cats.
“I think we get challenged a lot of different ways from every team we play,” Travis said. “We’ve played in a lot of big games this year and teams want to bring their best against us. This time of year, you expect that. We’re trying to bring our best against them as well and want to impose our will. It’s going to be a great test for us.”
The Cats, like their coach, know how good Houston is. They relish the challenge.
“Our cutting has to be even harder, our screens have to be better, we gotta execute even better down the stretch,” Herro said. “It’s going to be a tough game, but I think we’re focused and ready to go.”
Houston might be getting a lot of attention for its defense, but by the sound of it Kentucky is just as concerned with its rebounding. The Cougars outrebound their opponents by an average of 7.8 boards per game, largely due to ranking 21st in the country in offensive-rebounding rate.
“The biggest thing is just the physicality,” Travis said. “A big thing we’ve been working on in practice is just rebounding, just trying to box out. They’re a team that when they do shoot it, they’re all trying to chase it and get off and rebound and put it back. So for us a big part of the game plan is just finishing out possessions with a rebound and just really trying to match their physicality.”
Houston won’t be backing down come 9:59 p.m. ET on Thursday night. Neither will UK. With an Elite Eight trip on the line, it’s game on.
“We just go out there and play our hardest,” Hagans said. “We’ve got the best coach. Any team that comes out (against UK) is going to fight. Kentucky has been the top program for the longest, and we just have to go out there and keep that going.”
Kentucky Gets Past Wofford in NCAA Second Round
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Everywhere Fletcher Magee turned, there was a hand in his face, a body in his way, a relentless wave of blue that was intent on making sure he never found any alone time. Kentucky totally and completely shut down the most prolific 3-point scorer in Division I history.
Thanks to that stifling defensive effort, the Wildcats are moving on in the NCAA Tournament.
Magee missed all 12 attempts from long range in his final college game Saturday, and Kentucky held off Wofford 62-56 in the second round of the Midwest Region.
“We wanted to make him put the ball on the floor and make a basketball play,” said freshman guard Ashton Hagans, one of the players tasked with shutting down the Wofford gunner.
Mission accomplished.
Reid Travis scored 14 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and made two huge free throws with 17.8 seconds left to help seal the victory for second-seeded Kentucky (29-6). But coach John Calipari knew the key to this game was at the defensive end.
“If they hit a normal amount of 3s, they probably beat us,” the coach said, savoring his eighth trip to the Sweet 16 in a decade as the Wildcats’ coach.
Wofford (30-5) certainly had its chances, limiting the Wildcats to 40 percent shooting (21 of 52) and holding its own on the boards.
But Magee simply couldn’t make a shot, which was even more stunning since he had hit seven less than 48 hours earlier in a victory over Seton Hall, the night he eclipsed the Division I record for career 3-pointers. After his 12th and final attempt ricocheted wildly off the rim, skipping out of bounds in front of a stunned Wofford section, Magee rubbed his head in seeming disbelief. A dirty dozen, indeed.
“I’m still kind of in shock,” Magee said.
He insisted that his looks weren’t that much harder than what he normally gets in the Southern Conference. But something was a little off, and Kentucky’s defensive pressure appeared to wear him down by the final horn.
It was only the second time all season that Magee failed to make at least one shot from long range, following an 0-for-9 performance at Kansas in early December.
The rest of the Wofford roster went 8 of 15 from 3-point range. Nathan Hoover made four of them to finish with 19 points and Cameron Jackson chipped in with 11 points. Magee finished with eight points on 4-of-17 shooting overall.
Kentucky’s length, athleticism and effort certainly had something to do with Magee’s dismal showing. Tyler Herro had a tough shooting game himself, but he did a yeoman’s job on the Wofford gunner. Hagans and Jemarl Baker Jr. also stepped up at times to keep an eye on Magee.
“It was the effort and energy, and my hope is they got a little worn down because these guys did not stop,” Calipari said, looking over at his players. “They just chased, and they knew they couldn’t let up in this game or they were going to score baskets.”
Hagans added 12 points for the Wildcats, who fell behind by as many as six points in the first half before going on a late spurt that sent them to the locker room with a 28-26 lead. The Terriers briefly recaptured the lead early in the second half, but Kentucky went ahead for good with 14.5 minutes remaining and doggedly protected their advantage the rest of the way.
The Wildcats managed to win twice in Jacksonville without their leading scorer and rebounder, sophomore PJ Washington, who watched the games from the bench wearing a hard cast on his sprained left foot.
• Kentucky held Wofford to its second-fewest point total of the season and 37.5 percent shooting. Wofford came into the game shooting 49 percent on the season
• UK is now 181-15 (.923) under Calipari when keeping the opponents to 40 percent or less, including 17-0 this season
• Kentucky improved to UK is 172-7 (.961) under Calipari, including 20-0 this season, when limiting the opposition to 63 points or fewer
• UK limited its first two NCAA Tournament opponents to 100 points, the fewest its given up in its first two NCAA Tournament games in the shot-clock era and the fewest of any team left in the field
• UK won the rebounding, 36-30. UK is 24-4 this season when outrebounding the opponent
• UK increased its nation-leading NCAA Tournament win total to 128
• The Wildcats are now 24-7 as the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament
• UK improved to 30-7 in the NCAA Tournament under Calipari
• The win punched UK’s ticket to the Sweet 16 for the 27th time in school history (since 1975 when teams had to win at least one game to make the regional semifinals) and its eighth in 10 seasons under Calipari. The 27 Sweet 16 appearances are the second most in the country
• Travis’ double-double was his third of the season. His 37 minutes were the most he’s played since returning from his right knee sprain
• Jemarl Baker Jr. scored a career-high eight points, almost all of them timely. He’s scored 15 points over the last two games after scoring a combined 14 in the previous 10 games, including a DNP
• UK is now 58-30 vs. Associated Press Top 25 competition under Calipari all-time and 6-4 this season
• Calipari now has a 55-18 record all-time in NCAA Tournament play, and dating back to Memphis his teams have made 12 of the last 14 Sweet 16s
Wildcats Back in the Sweet 16
Kentucky is back in the Sweet 16 for the 27th time in school history and the eighth time under John Calipari.
The Wildcats earned their way to Kansas City, Missouri, by defeating Abilene Christian, the No. 15 seed in the region, 79-44 on Thursday in Jacksonville, Florida, before squeezing past seventh-seeded Wofford 62-56 on Saturday.
Up next is a date with No. 3 seed Houston on Friday in the Sprint Center at approximately 9:59 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on TBS.
Keldon is always taking my mic, so we had to give him a new one today. He loved it! pic.twitter.com/myb2Y2j2Vm
— Jonny David (@JonnyDavid) March 28, 2019
Kentucky, the No. 2 seed in the Midwest, is making its nation-leading 58th all-time appearance in the NCAA Tournament in 2019 (59 on-court appearances as the 1988 appearance was vacated) and 27th in the Sweet 16 since 1975 (the first year that all teams in the tournament were required to win at least one game to advance to the Sweet 16). That’s the second-most appearances in the country.
The Wildcats are 21-5 in Sweet 16 games and own a 36-11 all-time record in the regional semifinals (1988 game not counted).
UK has advanced to the Sweet 16 in eight of Calipari’s 10 seasons and is 6-1 in the previous seven Sweet 16 games. No other school has as many Sweet 16 appearances as the Wildcats since Calipari took the reins. Calipari is 11-3 all-time in Sweet 16 games. Prior to UK’s loss to Kansas State in last year’s Sweet 16, Kentucky had won its previous eight appearances in the Sweet 16.
This is the seventh time in program history the Wildcats have earned a No. 2 seed in the annual event. UK is now 24-7 as the No. 2 seed. Most recently, the Cats participated as the No. 2 seed in the South Region of the 2017 NCAA Tournament, falling 75-73 to eventual national champion No. 1 North Carolina in the regional final after defeating the Tar Heels 103-100 in the regular season. Coincidentally, UNC is also the No. 1 seed in UK’s region again and will be in Kansas City this weekend.
UK owns a 128-51 record all-time in NCAA action, with its .713 winning percentage the fifth best in NCAA history. This is the sixth straight
appearance in the NCAA Tournament for the Wildcats and ninth in 10 seasons under Calipari.
Kentucky is 30-7 (.811) in NCAA Tournament games under the direction of Calipari. Calipari is 55-18 (.753) as a head coach in NCAA Tournament games.
Since Calipari took over the reins at UK, the Wildcats lead the country in:
• NCAA Tournament wins (30)
• Final Four appearances (four)
• Elite Eight appearances (six)
• Sweet 16 appearances (eight)
