Antonio Reeves is excited to return home to Chicago to play No. 1 Chicago. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky gets a turn on the national stage Tuesday in Chicago when it plays No. 1 Kansas in the Champions Classic.
It was no surprise that Kentucky coach John Calipari said he had not yet watched Kansas play after the Cats beat Texas A&M Commerce 81-61 Friday night.
“You guys know I don’t do that until we get ready for the game. I had some staff members get ahead of it so I would be able to be told what we are looking at. But they (Kansas) are good. Are they still number one in the country?” Calipari said.
“So we are playing a number one team in the country. We could be shorthanded. Should we play the game anyway? Yeah, let’s play it.”
Kentucky will be shorthanded. There’s almost no chance any of its 7-footers will play since they have not this season and sophomore wing Adou Thiero missed Friday’s win because of concussion protocol. Kentucky only used seven players in Friday’s win.
“I mean, if you are shorthanded, you are shorthanded. Like, do you think anybody’s feeling sorry for us? Oh, no. They are happy. They hope two more guys get hurt,” Calipari said.
“So we know how good they are. We have played them. We’ve played them here, we’ve played them at Kansas, we played them in different — this event. We get them, they get us. It’s always that kind of competitiveness. But we will see how good they are and where we are with a bunch of young guys at this point. My guess is, he has got a veteran kind of team, older. We’ll see.”
One of Kentucky’s veterans is leading scorer Antonio Reeves, who had 21 points Friday. The game against Kansas is in his hometown.
“I can’t wait. I am definitely looking forward to that game, just to see where we’re at,” Reeves said. “I feel like we’re going to do really big things and these freshmen are ready.
“I’m very excited to play (in Chicago). I can’t wait. I’ve got a lot of people coming. It’s going to be a big game so we have to show what we can do.”
Freshman guard D.J. Wagner knows the Cats have to get better before Tuesday.
“Just making adjustments, that’s what practice is for. We’re going to get back in the lab and we’re just going to work on, just communicating and small things like that,” Wagner said. “So we’re going to get right back to practice and work on it.”
One Response
When did Thiero bang his head? Hopefully, he can play on Tuesday. If push comes to shove, Canada can give us some minutes. He is a lot better than people know. Playing Wagner and Dillingham together is a mistake; they play better separately, even if it means reduced minutes for both. If we get big games from Reeves, Mitchell, and Edwards it could be an interesting game if everyone else plays within themselves. Thiero could be a difference maker if he is not seeing double. Maybe they will let him wear a football helmet.