Kentucky better not overlook surprising Missouri to start SEC play

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John Calipari wants his players to quit worrying about how they are playing and instead worry about how the team is playing. (Vicky Graff Photo)

Kentucky plays at Missouri Wednesday night to open Southeastern Conference play and the Tigers have been one of the league’s biggest surprises so far.

Missouri is now 11-1 after a stunning 83-71 win over No. 16 Illinois in St. Louis Thursday. It was Missouri’s first win against a ranked team this season and the Tigers will get a second chance at a top 25 win against John Calipari’s team.

Senior Kobe Brown had a career-high 31 points for Missouri against Illinois along with eight assists, five rebounds and four steals. D’Moi Hodge had 20 points, including four 3-pointers, and DeAndre Gholston had 15 points.

Missouri shot 59.3 percent from the field against Illinois and now has shot 50 percent or better from the field seven times this season. Missouri also had 23 assists and 12 steals in the win.

Kentucky was the preseason pick to win the SEC championship but has not been the best SEC team in non-conference play. Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi State and Missouri are all 11-1. Alabama, Auburn and Tennessee are all 10-2. Even Georgia is 9-3 while UK is 8-3.

Alabama has wins over North Carolina and Houston, who were both ranked No. 1 at the time, along with a victory over Michigan State. Its losses were to UConn and Gonzaga.

John Calipari’s team has struggled to find an identity but the catch insists he is not “budging” with his belief that his team can be special.

“This team, we — combinations matter with this group. We’re going to have to have some good combinations,” Calipari said after last week’s win over Florida A&M.

Yes they do but he can’t find those combinations because other than freshman guard Cason Wallace and reigning national player of the year Oscar Tshiebwe, the Cats have been consistently inconsistent.

“We left two timeouts and didn’t run stuff the right way, and one of them the guy asked me, ‘So you want me to do this?’ ‘Yeah.’ And he didn’t do it,” Calipari said

“We’re still not — I told them after the game, you cannot be worried about how you’re playing. You’ve got to worry about how we’re playing. We’ve got to talk.”

They better talk because a loss at Missouri would not be the way for UK to start conference play and ease the worries many UK fans have about this team.

“Again, this is hard. You know, playing here and playing for teams that come in and are inspired to play, you’ve got to bring it. If you’re into you and you’re out there by yourself, this is impossible,” Calipari said.

“You have to be together, all of you and talking. We did some good stuff, but at halftime — no one shot 50 percent on us this year. They did. I don’t know what the game was. They shot 52 for the game? That’s the first team to do that to us.”

Then Calipari mentioned something that might be accurate but sure did not sound like the right example for a coach to set.

“Now, just so you know, my stuff has been packed since this morning, and my guess is their stuff has been packed since this morning, too, and ready to get out of here, but there’s no excuse for what they did to us offensively,” Calipari said.

Certainly it’s easy to understand players maybe looking a bit ahead against a team it was favored to beat by 38 1/2. But for Calipari to say his bags were packed the morning of the game because he was anxious to get out of town probably was not what he should have said. That basically justified players looking past Florida A&M.

That’s a mistake Kentucky cannot make again at Missouri.

10 Responses

  1. This guy often has no idea what he is saying.

    That is why I have concluded it is better to ignore nearly everything he says.

    Mizzou will be dangerous, and the SEC will be treacherous. UK is no better than the 4th best team in this conference right now, and maybe 5th or 6th at this stage.

  2. Whether they packed their bags or not we may have be putting too much into this statement. The big question from this is do we have players just there trying to market themselves? His comment “We’re still not — I told them after the game, you cannot be worried about how you’re playing. You’ve got to worry about how we’re playing. We’ve got to talk.” is what bothers me the most. They play a lot like there are team chemistry issues. The overall system Cal has put into place only works if they buy into the need to perform well as a team, and if so things will work better for all of us. He has had a lot of players drafted high that were not the top scorers, yet they went high. Teams Cal has had when individual’s first would creep in too much, played the worse team ball. UK does a great job of keeping things internal, they will take the heat and not throw players under the bus. I don’t see good unity on the floor!

  3. I just opened my Christmas present from Coach Calipari…a top 25 men’s basketball ranking that DID include Missouri, but DID NOT include Kentucky. A Wheeler led team is doomed to double digit losses this season. Thankfully, we will not have to worry about ANOTHER first round loss in the Big Dance…but it could happen AGAIN in the NIT. Does Dr. Capilouto even watch these games?

  4. I don’t see this team missing the big dance in March, but I do see it advancing no further than the Sweet 16, and probably falling out in the round of 32.

    That is not sufficient to meet reasonable expectations for this program, which is measured by final four banners, as I recall Calipari clearly stating in 2009 when he arrived.

    There is a more fundamental problem than final four misses because even on his final four trips, and other teams as well, he has ended losing to weaker teams in 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2021, and 2022.

    These end of season flameouts define the Calipari era. The only 2 years this did not happen were 2012 with a championship, and 2017 with a loss to a very good North Carolina team that was about the same strength as the 2017 UK team.

    West Virginia
    UConn
    NIT Robert Morris
    UConn
    Wisconsin
    Indiana
    Kansas State
    Auburn
    Mississippi State, and
    Saint Peter’s

    What a litany of season-ending failure by a coach who claims his teams are geared to perform when it counts in March.

    Another big lie by this fraud who claims to be a coach.

      1. Does last 3-4 years, especially current team, remind you of Tubby Smith 2.0? Loved Tubby but some boring BB! All half court sets with grind it out, hope we not only get fouled but can make a free throw.
        No run and gun for dunks/ uncontested shots. What happened after rebound to 2-3 passes and score. Now we dribble the air out of ball, have 3 players all within the arc that essentially hand ball off to one another. No run/gun and 0 spacing.

          1. I know you have said that we didn’t run Tubby out of town. I will just say that Tubby left on his own accord for the greener pastures of…MINNESOTA. It’s too bad that Calipari isn’t looking for greener pastures in a place like…WYOMING. It’s going to be a long season.

  5. Maybe Calipari will interview for the Broncos job. He has to know more about football than he does about basketball.

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