John Calipari said Sunday that last year's NCAA loss "hurt like hell." (Vicky Graff Photo)
Remind me again how the NCAA Tournament selection committee/CBS-TV does not look at interesting storylines when it makes tourney pairings.
Sure, it’s just a coincidence that Kentucky is a No. 6 seed in the East Region and will open tourney play Friday night in Greensboro, N.C., against No. 11 seed Providence.
Yes, Providence just happens to have Kentucky transfer Bryce Hopkins as its best player and a finalist for the Karl Malone Award given by the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame to the top power forward in college basketball.
And CBS-TV just happened to think this would be a great matchup to show a national audience and will carry the game at 7:10 p.m. with Ian Eagle, Jim Spanarkel and Evan Washburn calling the game. No alternate channel for the Cats on Friday night in primetime when it will be a huge NATIONAL story if Hopkins leads the Friars to an upset win.
This was such an easy first-round matchup to predict that I did exactly that on WLAP Sunday Morning Sports seven hours before the pairings were released. You just knew this was coming.
Hopkins came to UK highly touted but a preseason injury apparently set him back and Calipari never gave him extended playing time. By the end of the season, he barely played. He averaged 6.4 minutes per game at UK but this season he averaged 34.8 minutes per game along with 16.1 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.3 assists.
Both Kentucky and Providence are 21-11 going into NCAA play. Kentucky has lost two of its last three games — both to Vanderbilt — while Providence has lost its last three games to Xavier 94-89, Seton Hall 82-58 and UConn 73-66. It does have wins over Marquette, Creighton and UConn — all NCAA tourney teams with higher seeds than UK — during the regular season.
Kentucky has been one of the nation’s most inconsistent teams due partially to injuries. The Wildcats were just 1-7 vs. Quad 1 opponents in early February but are now 6-7 in Quad 1 games thanks to the 88-79 road win over Arkansas to end regular-season play.
The SEC also got eight teams — tied with the Big Ten for the most by any conference — with (1) Alabama, (4) Tennessee, (7) Texas A&M, (7) Missouri, (8) Arkansas, (9) Auburn, and (11) Mississippi State joining UK. Vanderbilt beat Kentucky two times in nine days but did not make the tourney field.
Kentucky is 48-11 in NCAA Tournament openers and has won 25 its last 27 first-round games. Of course, one of those losses came last year as a No. 2 seed to St. Peter’s.
Providence has two solid scorers to go with Hopkins. Ed Croswell is averaging 13.2 points and 7.6 rebounds per game. Noah Locke has made 70 3-pointers this season and averages 13.1 points per game.
The Friars average 78.1 points per game and shoot 46 percent overall from the field. Providence has outrebounded opponents by six per game, something it will have trouble doing against Oscar Tshiebwe.
Kentucky coach John Calipari was not giddy Sunday night but he certainly was optimistic just like he was after the loss to Vanderbilt in the SEC Tournament. He noted then UK was good enough to beat anyone in the country but also lose to anyone.
He also knows last year’s first-round loss to St. Peter’s will be talked about a lot by fans/media but he has to keep those thoughts away from his players.
“Three years ago we could have won the national title and they cancelled the tournament (due to COVID),” Calipari said. “What happened last year (losing in the first round) was the first time in my career and it hurt like hell. You move on.
“They (UK players) got to see me loose and ready to go. They are going to feed off me. I am excited about it. I am excited for these kids.”
7 Responses
One of the biggest disappointments of this season is the lack of face the basket ability from Oscar. He still amazes me with the rebounds he comes up with , I’ve never seen anything like that. One of a kind . But I’m curious as to the lack of development of his offensive skills. If the offense runs through him , which it does , the lack of recognition of double teams , sometimes triple is way to slow , and the ball needs to be fired out. And going back to not being able to face the basket, you lose vision .
UK’s problem is no clear on-the-floor leadership. No one that gets in the face of other players when they screw up or says give me the ball and get out of my way. There is no consistent outside threat and no one with the ability to consistently drive to the basket and take their man one-on-one. If there is, Cal isn’t letting them do it nearly enough.
You have to have at least one player, like Quickley, Gilgeous-Alexander, Fox, or Wall that can put the ball on the floor and get to the basket. You also need that player that can hit the shot when the drive is cut off and they have to dish it out.
UK has players that can do those thinks sporadically, but that doesn’t win big games consistently. Who knows, maybe someone will get hot and stay hot for more than one game, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
Another guy that amazed me in getting to the rim but couldn’t shoot but was a bowling ball in motion was, Isaiah Briscoe.. that dude was tough..
Btw Bryce Hopkins isn’t the second coming.
Gotta laugh at the fact that a key to us winning Friday is slowing a guy down that Cal didn’t think was good enough. And that guy might drop 30 and 20 on us while sending us packing.
I bet he doesn’t score 15 pts
Surprised that the selection committee has never put Memphis and Kentucky in the same
bracket since Cal has been at UK.