Kentucky Faces No. 11 Tennessee on Saturday
After suffering its fifth loss in the past six games, Kentucky returns to action on Saturday night at Rupp Arena. But the task of breaking the current three-game slide will not be easy as the 11th-ranked Tennessee Volunteers visit Lexington.
Kentucky lost at No. 18 Missouri 75-70 on Wednesday night. It was another game where the Cats had a chance to win in the last four minutes, only to be denied. Three untimely turnovers were part of the Cats’ undoing against the Tigers.
Kentucky must move past that game and focus on the Volunteers, who are among the nation’s best defensive teams. Kentucky assistant coach Jai Lucas knows UT head coach Rick Barnes well, having played for him at Texas.
“He’s one of the very best coaches,” Lucas said. “With Coach Barnes, it just goes to show how good a coach he is that the programs at Clemson, Texas, at Tennessee, what he’s doing now. It just goes to show that the proof is in the pudding.”
Lucas knows that this Tennessee squad is just like most Barnes-coached teams.
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| Kentucky vs. Tennessee | ||
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Sat., Feb. 6 – 8 p.m. ET |
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TV: ESPN |
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| UK | Stats | UT |
| 5-11 | Record | 12-4 |
| 4-5 | Conference Record | 5-4 |
| 67.6 | PPG | 71.8 |
| 68.7 | Opp PPG | 58.9 |
| .418 | FG% | .447 |
| .403 | Opp FG% | .393 |
| 39.0 | RPG | 35.8 |
| .302 | 3PT FG% | .345 |
| .310 | Opp 3PT FG% | .302 |
| 11.4 | APG | 15.1 |
| 6.6 | SPG | 7.3 |
| 6.3 | BPG | 4.8 |
“One thing, like all of Coach Barnes’ teams, they play extremely hard and they really focus on defense,” Lucas said. “They have probably one of the best defenders in the country in the big kid, (Yves) Pons. He does a good job, and they have big size with their guards and athleticism. You can just tell that it’s something that they take pride in and I think that’s the one thing that you’ve got to kind of figure out how you can attack them and what you can do to kind of expose some of the stuff. But it’s not easy. They’re really good defensively and I think early on that was their calling card. Now, they’ve started to try and figure that out again.”
Kentucky continues to struggle in the final minutes of games, something that Lucas said the Cats continue to work on.
“You just keep chipping away with it,” Lucas said. “We’re close. I know we keep saying we’re close, but it’s just little things that keep happening like that. You can’t have four fouls, five fouls when they’re in the bonus in the last five minutes and then three turnovers. No matter who you are, that’s going to come back and bite you. So, it’s just something that you keep working on and we keep attacking.”
Lucas said that the UK staff continues to tinker with the right lineup to have in the game in the final minutes.
“With us, we’re just trying anything and trying to find whatever is working,” Lucas said. “Like I was saying earlier, with being how our team is structured, with how the year is going, it’s really a game-by-game. It’s kind of a feel thing because we’re just trying to find whatever will work at that time.”
The Cats do not have that one go-to guy who can get a basket late in the game. Sophomore forward Keion Brooks Jr. says that it must be a team effort to get the job done late in games.
“We’ve just got to get it done by committee,” Brooks said. “Even when a team has a go-to-guy, their other teammates still step up and make plays and do what they can to help him out. So, everybody has to step up and play their role, play their part and do what they have to do to help us win.”
Lucas knows that UK may not have that go-to guy, but it’s not like the Cats don’t have options at crunch time.
“Ours right now is a game-by-game thing,” Lucas said. “It may be Olivier (Sarr) one game when he’s got it going. It may be Davion (Mintz) when he’s making jump shots or in a few games it may be Keion (Brooks Jr.). It’s just kind of a feel thing. I think that’s kind of what Coach Cal was saying. We just don’t have that one definite that we know we can go to, but dependent on how that game’s going that person can be anybody.”
Kentucky hopes to overcome the challenge of the last four minutes, in addition to a tough Tennessee defense, in Saturday’s SEC clash.
Up Next: Third Straight Associated Press Top-25 Foe
With all of the struggles this Kentucky team has faced this season enduring the third-toughest schedule in the country according to KenPom. com, UK is in the midst of its toughest stretch yet. Kentucky will take on its third straight Associated Press Top 25 opponent in No. 11 Tennessee. Kentucky’s stretch also includes five straight opponents ranked in the top 40 of the NET rankings (LSU, Alabama, Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas).
Although its yet to pull off an upset, Kentucky has gone toe-to-toe with both the Tide and Tigers in its last two times out. The Wildcats have put together admirable second-half performances that have given them a chance to win in both contests — but late four-minute breakdowns (more below) — have halted the upset bid.
Up next for Kentucky is only its longest-standing opponent in program history in its border-state rival. UK owns a 156-74 all-time record, including a 92-18 mark in Lexington. However, the series has been a war since John Calipari arrived. During his tenure, the Wildcats lead the series 13-8, but the Volunteers have a 5-3 clip over the last eight meetings. The teams split the matchups a season ago with both visiting teams earning the win. The last time the teams met in Rupp Arena, Tennessee erased a 17-point UK lead to storm back for a signature comeback win and spoil the Southeastern Conference champions final home contest of 2019-20.
This season, the tables have turned and Tennessee enters the contest as the hunted. The Volunteers were picked to take home the SEC crown and are 12-4 overall and 5-4 in league play. Tennessee has lost three of five entering Saturday’s matchup with the Wildcats, including a 52-50 loss at Ole Miss on Tuesday.
John Fulkerson — who scored a career-high 27 points in last year’s upset — leads the Volunteers with 11.0 points per game and a team-best 5.9 rebounds. Tennessee is outscoring its opponents by 12.8 points this season, while shooting at a 44.7% clip.
Too Close to Call
One thing that has been consistent for Kentucky this season has been playing in close games. The Cats have been on the positive side of them, and also had a few heartbreakers too.
UK lost 65-62 to No. 7/5 Kansas but had a shot to tie with five seconds to play. The Wildcats overcame a nine-point second-half deficit to have the last-second chance to force overtime.
Against Notre Dame, the Wildcats erased a 22-point halftime deficit — the largest for a home game in program history — and had a shot to win the game with two seconds remaining, but fell 64-63.
Kentucky overcame a late seven-point deficit at rival Louisville and had three possessions to tie or take the lead, including a shot with one second remaining to tie. Ultimately, the Wildcats fell 62-59 with a cruel in-and-out shot by Olivier Sarr to take the lead late in the game.
UK bounced back from those tough outings with a double-overtime win at Mississippi State and then stormed back from a nine-point hole against Vanderbilt and won with a Davion Mintz 3-pointer with less than a minute to play.
Kentucky suffered a 63-62 loss at Georgia on a last-second bucket by P.J. Horne as the Bulldogs erased a late six-point lead for the win.
The Wildcats erased a 13-point halftime deficit to pull to within a one-possession game in the second half at No. 18 Missouri multiple times before eventually falling 75-70.
Historically, the Wildcats have come out favorably in one-possession games under John Calipari. In fact, UK is 31-28 (52.5%) in Calipari’s 12 seasons in games decided by three points or less (that includes the 1-4 mark this season). In games decided by just two possessions, or six points or fewer, Kentucky is 64-48 (57.1%) under Calipari.
Only the 2014-15 team — who won its first 38 games — finished the season with a perfect record in both forms of the down-to-the-wire games and the 2012 squad’s only blemish was the infamous last-second 3-pointer at Indiana.
The 2013-14 team, which made a memorable run to the NCAA national championship, was 2-2 in three-point games and 2-7 in six-point games during the regular season before finishing 4-2 in one-possession games and 6-9 in a two-possession contests after the memorable postseason run.
The Brandon Knight-led 2010-11 group was just 1-5 in one-possession games during the regular-season and 4-6 in two-possession games. That squad made Calipari’s first Final Four as UK’s head coach winning a pair of one-possession games during the tournament run, while also losing by just two for a chance to play for the title.
The Rule of 76?
With the way the defense has played this season, Kentucky doesn’t have to be great offensively to win. It just can’t be poor.
UK is 5-0 this season when scoring at least 76 points but 0-10 when scoring 65 or fewer. In a bit of a statistical oddity, the Wildcats had not scored between 66 and 75 points until scoring 70 at No. 18/16 Missouri on Tuesday in a 75-70 loss.
