Tony Barbee expects Kentucky to do a lot of damage this year

barbee-nov-30

Keion Brooks laughs at something former UK assistant coach Tony Barbee said to him during Monday's game. (UK Athletics Photo)

Losing 85-57 cannot be a lot of fun for any coach. However, Central Michigan coach Tony Barbee considers Kentucky “family” because he not only played for UK coach John Calipari at UMass but also was on his coaching staff at UK.

This is Barbee’s first year as head coach at Central Michigan and he knew what to expect. His team had already lost 107-54 to Gonzaga and 78-68 at Missouri, 99-66 at DePaul, and 76-69 to Bellarmine in Las Vegas. Another beatdown figures to be coming Wednesday night at Bellarmine.

So Barbee knew what likely was coming because he coached and/or recruited a lot of the current players.

“The coaches, coaching staff, the players who were there with me previously, we are all family. We will always be family. That’s kind of how things are so obviously it’s not my first time coaching at Rupp even on the opposite, opposing bench a few times,” Barbee said after the game.

“But it’s always neat to compete against the best and they’ve got a fantastic team that’s going to do a lot of damage this year.”

Kentucky made nine of its first 10 shots and roared out to a 20-point lead before cooling off and letting Central Michigan basically play the game on even terms in the second half.

“They’re a good team and when we are as new of a program as we are and trying to build things with basically 14 new players, it’s a process, it’s going to take time, and part of me playing this challenging schedule I put together was to let the guys know the measuring stick where we want to ultimately get to,” Barbee said.

“When you’re a player and you’re in this historic arena in Rupp, playing against a Hall of Fame coach, top five, top 10 program in the country … we came out a little nervous. Now I attribute a lot to them and their pressure and how they play.

“You know two things you can’t do against Kentucky is give them transition baskets and second chance points on the offense glass. So we dug ourselves a big hole but I thought we settled down and did some good things in the second half.”

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