Kentucky fans like what the Cats have been doing during their six-game SEC winning streak. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky is starting to live up to the preseason hype.
The Wildcats (16-7, 7-3 SEC) have won six straight SEC games going into Tuesday night’s contest against Arkansas (16-7, 5-5) and have lost just once since a 63-56 victory at No. 9 Tennessee on Jan. 14 in Knoxville. Kentucky is coming off a 72-67 win over Florida Saturday night.
“This team is coming together, and I told them they would break through, just stay the course, and they’re breaking through,” Calipari said.
The breakthrough began against the Volunteers and has carried over, especially against conference foes. The Wildcats are currently tied with Auburn for third in the conference standings going into Tuesday’s contest against the Razorbacks.
“We know that games in conference right now, at this point in the season, are all hard,” Kentucky associate coach Orlando Antigua said Monday. “We need to be at our best. I think we’re playing at a great pace and with great rhythm right now, and we want to continue that.”
A tweak to the lineup — inserting Cason Wallace at point guard and giving sixth-man Antonio Reeves more minutes — combined with a new mental approach has made a difference for Calipari’s squad during the past four weeks.
“We’re trying to win now — that’s all we’re worried about,” Calipari said after Saturday’s win. “We want to have a win on Sunday. Then we want to have a win on Monday. And then let’s play the game and see how it turns out. We’re just trying to win days. That’s what we’ve been doing since Tennessee, just win days. And these guys have been terrific”
Kentucky’s upcoming schedule appears to be favorable, but Calipari isn’t taking anything for granted.
“They don’t stop coming (and) they are one after another,” Calipari said. “We’ve got another tough game Tuesday. We’ve got to play better in certain areas. With this schedule, you know, we just, what we’re doing is staying the course.”
Kentucky hasn’t been ranked in six weeks, but received one vote in this week’s Associated Press Top 25 poll released Monday. Purdue is No. 1, Alabama is fourth and Tennessee is ranked ninth this week.
“You’re seeing teams all over the country get beat,” Calipari said. “I only read about us when we get beat, but there are teams across the country that are getting beat, and it’s because that happens. You play a good schedule, you’re going to lose some games. You play a team that’s trying to figure themselves out, it takes some time. Now, it’s not done.”
* * *
Gametracker: Arkansas at Kentucky, 9 p.m., Tuesday. TV/Radio: ESPN, UK Radio Network.
2 Responses
This garbage about being no great teams "this year" and that there is more parity in the game "this year" is repeated by the same fools year after year.
There are a handful of teams this year that have distinguished themselves from the pack just like there are every year. They do not do that with smoke and mirrors, and the separation is as real and legitimate as it is in any other year.
Talk like that is used by the losers to give hope to their fretting fans, and repeated by the fretting fans to justify their continued hope that things will get better one day soon.
I know that most people’s eyes glaze over when numbers enter the conversation, but for me the best way to demonstrate why this season is over is with a graphical presentation of the numbers. The numbers in this case are game number (horizontal scale) and game adjusted net efficiency, points per possession on the vertical scale.
The up and down pattern is not alarming because all teams’ graph for this data has this pattern. However, the average level of performance, and the long term trends are important.
1) The blue dotted line is this team’s trend line. Great teams have long term trend lines that are either nearly horizontal or trending upward, left to right. This team’s long term trend is clearly in the wrong direction.
2) The heavy dark blue curvy line is UK’s average adjusted net efficiency, and it is also in a downward trajectory and is currently about 0.15 ppp, which is high enough to currently rank #41 in the nation. That is in the "good" range, better than average range, but it is not in a range that will be competitive in the NCAA tournament beyond the first weekend, if this team gets an at large bid.
3) The high point in game 17 is the win at Tennessee. Notice that while it is the high point, UK has had 1 or 2 other games with high peaks (games 2 and 6). Every team has 2 or 3 high peaks on their graph every year.
4) The low points have occurred most recently in game 24 (Arkansas) but other low points have occurred in games 3, 5, 12, 15, and 16. That is a total of 6 low points this season compare to the 2 or 3 high points. Most teams have an equal number of high and low points, and when a team’s ratio is skewed to the low points as this team’s is, then the downward trend results.
5) Finally, look at what has been happening since UK’s last high point (win at Tennessee), this team has been up and down (no surprise) and the overall trend has been downward, culminating in Saturday’s embarrassing loss to Arkansas.
This is why I have been trying to sound the alarm about this team’s play since late November.
Now it is near the end of the season, and all the confidence that Calipari would work his magic and turn this train around is waning.
Frankly, those hopes pined on this coach are misplaced.
Have a great rest of the season. because you are seeing exactly what this coach has delivered once again.
https://s3media.247sports.com/Uploads/Assets/182/617/11617182.png?width=600&fit=bounds
Continuing the previous discussion, these graphs isolate offensive (green) and defensive (red) efficiencies by game.
On the offensive side, the trend line is gradually sloping downward, and of course a rising trend would be more encouraging. However, the magnitude of the slope downward is relatively small. The real issue offensively is not necessarily the downward trend we see, but the magnitude of the average offensive efficiency at about 1.12 points per possession. Great offenses will be higher, at about 1.20 ppp or even higher, and this team’s offense has never been in that range all season long.
https://s3media.247sports.com/Uploads/Assets/206/617/11617206.png?width=600&fit=bounds
The real issue with this team is its defense. The season long trend has been rising (not the good direction for defense) defensive efficiency. The current average is about 1.00 points per possession, and based on the trend is likely to rise even higher as this team closes out the season.
Great teams have adjusted defensive efficiencies below 0.90 ppp, and this team simply has never even been close, and has been getting worse.
None of this will come as a surprise to those who have watched this season closely. However, these graphs should give some meaning to what you all have been seeing.
https://s3media.247sports.com/Uploads/Assets/205/617/11617205.png?width=600&fit=bounds
Comments are closed.