Isaiah Jackson leads Kentucky in blocked shots. (SEC Photo)
The first time Kentucky and Tennessee played the Vols outscored UK 48-29 in the second half to win 82-71. After the game, Kentucky coach John Calipari admitted his guards got bullied by Tennessee freshmen guards Jaden Springer and Keon Johnson. The duo is averaging 22.5 points between them going into Saturday afternoon’s game in Knoxville but against UK they combined for 50 points — 23 by Springer and 27 by Johnson. They were a combined 18 of 33 from the field.
“This team is very physical,” Calipari said about Tennessee Friday. A lot of fouls called early (in the previous game) because they came in with a physical presence. They were going to come in and knock us to the cheerleaders and the officials called fouls.
“So, if it’s that kind of a game, my hope is it’s the same way. You know? Fouls are fouls whether it’s in Lex or Knoxville.”
Kentucky was 17 of 19 at the foul line that first game and the Vols were 13 of 15. However, the early foul calls put Tennessee bigs John Fulkerson and Yves Pones into spectators much of the game. Fulkerson did not score and Pones had six points. They normally combine for 20 points per game.
Obviously, Calipari was sending a message to officials not to let Tennessee’s big knock his team around early. But even with Fulkerson and Pons watching, the Vols dismantled UK in the second half thanks to the guard play.
“All they did when they got down 10 was spread the court and went on the bounce. So, it’s a combination. The guy who is guarding the ball, you can’t let him straight-line drive because we can’t help you. We have to stay in front. You can’t get bullied,” Calipari said Friday. “The other guys are hopefully playing better team defense than we did at that point.
“But they’re good. They scored 50 points. Two players. Fifty. The one thing of all of the tape that I’m watching now, they’re making 3s too. So, you can’t just say collapse in the lane. Because if they make a ton of 3s, they’re really hard to beat. But if two players are getting 50, they’re hard to beat. They’re a good team. That’s why they’re a highly-ranked team.”
That brought Calipari back to his team having to play more physically to survive.
“Very physical play. The biggest thing is we’ve got to be ready for the fight. You’ve got to play low to the floor. You can’t just get pushed around, and if you’re standing straight up and down you will. Guards, you’re going to get pushed off of ball screens or off of screens. You’ve got to be prepared for it. You’ve got to be ready and it’s a man’s game,” Calipari said.
One plus for Kentucky is the “man’s game” could be shot-blockers Isaiah Jackson and Olivier Sarr.
“We say they (opponents) hear Casper (the Ghost). They hear ghosts. They know, you drive in there you don’t know where the hell it’s coming from, but Casper is in there,” Calipari said.
“But, like I said, tough game tomorrow afternoon. Whew. But you know what? Let’s go. Let’s see where we are. Let’s keep learning about each other. Let’s see what we have to do to keep this climb going because that’s what it is. It’s about this climb.”
