You do it. You figure this team out. You tell me how this Kentucky team can lose at home to South Carolina and then beat Tennessee on the road. You tell me how Kentucky can look so bad one Saturday against Georgia, then look so good the next in sweeping the Vols.
Tennessee fans must wonder the same thing. How can the Volunteers become the first SEC team to beat league-leading and No. 1 ranked Alabama on a Wednesday, then three days later be blitzed by 20 points in the first 20 minutes when supposedly seeking revenge at Rupp Arena?
“I wish I knew,” UT head coach Rick Barnes said after his team’s 66-54 loss to the Cats on Saturday, the Vols’ second loss to its northern neighbor this season.
That’s life, Frank Sinatra would say. Riding high one week, shot down the next. Or vice versa. A week ago, Kentucky lost a game it couldn’t lose, falling 75-68 to a reeling Georgia in Athens. Damaged were UK’s NCAA hopes. Now, after victories over Mississippi State (in Starkville) and 10th-ranked Tennessee, John Calipari’s club has climbed to No. 33 in the NCAA NET rankings with a respectable 4-7 mark in Quad 1 games.
Did Saturday’s win guarantee UK an invitation to the Big Dance? Not quite. Still, surely only a Cats collapse over the final four regular-season games in the final two regular-season weeks would keep Calipari and Company from smiling on Selection Sunday.
After all, Kentucky should win Wednesday at Florida. The Gators’ best player, center Colin Castleton, is out with a broken right hand. Florida lost 84-65 at Arkansas on Saturday.
Auburn visits Lexington this Saturday. Bruce Pearl’s team slipped to 8-6 in league play after giving up a game-winning driving layup to Vanderbilt with 0.8 seconds left in a 67-65 loss to the Commodores in Nashville on Saturday. The Tigers have now lost six of their last eight.
Meanwhile, Vanderbilt has now won five straight SEC games since being annihilated 101-44 by Alabama. Jerry Stackhouse’s squad is suddenly 8-6 in the SEC. The ‘Dores knock on Rupp’s door next Wednesday.
Kentucky finishes up the regular season at Arkansas on March 4. Like Kentucky, the Razorbacks are 18-9 overall. Unlike Kentucky, Eric Musselman’s club is 7-7 in league play. Kentucky is 9-5.
Making the NCAA Tournament is good. Making noise in the NCAA Tournament is better. Much better. Remember, through a variety of circumstances, UK hasn’t won a March Madness game the last two tournaments. Uninvited in 2021. First-round knockout in 2022. A simple 2023 goal would be to survive and advance.
To do that, the Cats must play much the same way they did the first half Saturday on the way to a 39-19 lead over the Vols. (That was UK’s biggest lead by margin in an SEC game since being up 45-15 at the break at Vanderbilt on Jan. 29, 2019.) True, Tennessee’s initial offensive strategy was strange, to say the least. Just a 32.7 percent three-point shooting team on the season, the Vols took 13 three-pointers the first half. They made one.
“I thought early in the game our shot selection wasn’t very good and the guys let that seep into the defensive effort,” Barnes said.
Kentucky took advantage. Chris Livingston was terrific. His 12 points and 10 rebounds qualified as the freshman’s first college double-double. Cason Wallace scored 16 points and dished six assists. Oscar Tshiebwe made 10 of 11 free throws. With 11 points, Jacob Toppin has reached double figures in 10 straight games.
Tennessee’s top-ranked defense forced Alabama into 19 turnovers. Saturday, Kentucky committed 12. And after outrebounding UT 43-23 in Knoxville, the Cats won the boards 40-32 Saturday. Revealing stat: This UK team is 18-4 when it wins the battle of the boards. It is 0-5 when it doesn’t.
Crazy stat: Kentucky went 3-for-8 from three-point range Saturday, its fewest three-point attempts since going 2-for-7 against Florida on March 9, 2019.
“That’s like a UMass team,” said Calipari, the former UMass coach. “That’s truly refuse to lose.”
Refuse to lose? That’s consistency.
©2023 Lexington Herald-Leader. Visit kentucky.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
