Vicky Graff Photo
During Kentucky’s win over Arkansas Saturday, CBS-TV analyst Jay Wright had an obvious thought about the talent on coach John Calipari’s team.
“Nobody comes off the bench with this type of firepower but I also like Kentucky’s starting lineup. That is their best defensive team,” Wright said. “I think they are in a great spot. Their ceiling would be a 2 (seed in the NCAA Tournament) but I think they can get to a 3 seed and they are going to be very dangerous in the tournament.”
Kentucky went on to outscore Arkansas 111-102 and the bench play was spectacular.
Evan Miya of EvanMiya.com does college basketball analytics for ESPN, CBS-TV and others and he had a statistic to show the depth Calipari has.
“Kentucky’s bench played more minutes (106) than the starters today (94). It’s the first time since the famed 2014-15 squad that Calipari has played his bench more minutes than his starters in a game,” Miya said.
Why not?
—Rob Dillingham had 15 points, five assists and one steal in 24 minutes.
— Aaron Bradshaw had 15 points on 4-for-4 shooting from the field and 6-for-8 at the foul line along with five rebounds and one assist in 12 minutes.
— Reed Sheppard ended up playing 34 minutes and had 10 points and five assists.
— Justin Edwards had 10 points in only 13 minutes and was 3-for-4 from the field. He also had three steals, one rebound and one assist.
— Zvonimir Ivisic contributed 12 points, nine rebounds, two blocks, one assist and one steal in 20 minutes.
— Tre Mitchell got back in the lineup after being out with injury and played 13 minutes with three rebounds, two points, one assist and one steal.
Former Villanova coach Jay Wright, now a CBS-TV analyst, talked several times during the game about Kentucky’s overall talent, including bringing future NBA draft picks off the bench.
“There are so many ways that Kentucky can hurt you,” Wright said. “You never know which big will be the answer for Kentucky on a particular day. Bradshaw has been spectacular this game and that depth will give Kentucky so much flexibility in the (NCAA) tournament.
“Aaron Bradshaw really came to play today. I really think he wanted to play Big Z more but Bradshaw has given them (Arkansas) the most trouble and he is sticking with him.”
Think how Arkansas coach Eric Musselman had to feel. His team has been a major disappointment this season with only five SEC wins. They had won their last two trips to Rupp Arena and scored 102 points but still could not win. Arkansas shot 53 percent overall, 41 percent from 3 and 96 percent at the foul line (27 of 28) and still lost.
“I thought it was by far our best offensive game, not even close. I thought we played as hard as we played all year,” the Arkansas coach said. “The effort, the focus, the belief, all those things were as good as they’ve been. Thought we showed great toughness, thought we got on the floor for loose balls.”
He said Kentucky “played as hard as I’ve seen a team play” all season — something that one could not always say about the Cats but they are learning and improving weekly.
“You’re talking about a Kentucky team that can win a national championship,” Musselman said.
14 Responses
Larry, we don’t play defense and rebound for 40 minutes. It’s hard to win a championship that way. Sure we can score, but how many times has a Kentucky team or any team given up 100 points in a game and won? Not many. We are looking more and more like an NBA team…all offense and no defense. The game in Knoxville will tell us what to expect from this team in the tournaments.
We can’t be contenders if we don’t have a defense and obviously we don’t. Teams built for March are supposed to do more than just survive.We start every game the same with losing opening tip, falling behind early with little energy, and then having to dig our way back. We go up by 10-11 pts and then couple minutes later we are down 1. Every team seems to score at will on the inside and we continue to struggle.
You do realize basketball is and will ALWAYS BE A GAME OF RUNS!!!! Doesn’t matter if it was the running Rebels playing defense. Sometimes during those games, their opponent made a run to come back. Long as we continued to improve in certain areas, is all that matters. We don’t have to be, nor are we going to have that Houston type level defense this season.
Overall this team is more fun to watch and has a better chance to advance in the tournament than any team we’ve had in the past 4 years. In my opinion.
Don’t tell Barry or Mike and so many others that!;
I don’t care who likes me. I just like winning.
Another gritty win. They have a dozen players who could start on any team. Find the hot hands and ride them. Go Cal’s Cats!!!
I like that thinking Jimmy
Calipari has one player who WOULD START on any team in America, but he will never be recognized with a starting position by the Fraud.
No team can win a championship without both great offense and defense. This team has not played great defense, and has actually played pitifully poor defense in the vast majority of its games.
First weekend exit is this team’s destiny. Allowing 102 points to a poor Arkansas team is the most recent piece of evidence.
Many games now are street fights. Ky proved they can do that kind of game against Arkansas. There are so many fouls the refs can’t call them all. The games would last three hours. Cal recognized that when he told his team, “If they do that to you, do it back to them”. Recognition of gang warfare on the court comes first. Now we’ll see how the Cats respond.
With you Ed
There is not another coach in the country that could take a whole new team like Cal has, and be talked about from so many EXPERTS, that they could make a run, on a neutral floor MIND YOU, and win a title. Name one please that has done as well as Cal has with new players and teams every year. I’m waiting Professor and listening, tell us
GO CATS
I like your thought process: Even if they win, they lose.
I love this team and Cal has done an incredible job getting the young guns to gel at just the right time. This team has a very good chance of winning #9. Just like every champion, there will need to be some luck to do so. That might be luck in an an actual game, or it could be a top seed in your bracket getting knocked out. The NCAA tourney has always been about guard play in March, and there IS NOT another team in the nation with 4 better guards.. Not 1!!!
When you hold a grudge against someone, that person is in your head and OWNS you. For all the clueless fans that hate on Cal ad nauseum, the same holds true. Cal OWNS you.