Ansley Almonor (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky’s comeback win over No. 8 Gonzaga ranks as one of the top three comebacks in school history.
Before posting a 90-89 overtime win over the Bulldogs last Saturday night, the fifth-ranked Wildcats (8-1) rallied from a 16-point halftime deficit to defeat LSU in 1994 and again in 2004 in a win over Louisville.
“We’re tough (and) we’re a really resilient group,” Kentucky guard Ansley Almonor said. “Being down 16, 18 in the second half, most teams would crumble and give up at that point, but we’re a veteran team. We knew we were better and we just had to go out there and execute the game plan and that’s what we did.”
The team’s toughness and a switch to a 1-3-1 zone in the second half provided the springboard for the successful comeback. The transition, Almonor said, was an easy one for the Wildcats, who mixed man-to-man and zone defenses the entire second half.
“We practice that a good amount,” Almonor said. “In situations like that, when the opposing offense has a good flow, we just throw something different at them to see how they react to that. The execution we wanted to do was confuse them a little bit, slow them down a little bit, mess up their flow and see how they reacted to it. They didn’t react that well. I think it worked for sure.”
After splitting a pair of games on the road last week, the Wildcats return home to take on Colgate in an 8 p.m. contest Wednesday night. The Raiders (2-8) have lost to Power 4 programs Syracuse and North Carolina State this season.
“They try to shoot a lot of threes, they play pretty fast,” Almonor said. “They know how to guard, it’s going to be a good little challenge for us. … “Coach (Pope) tries to preach to us about getting better every day. That was a big win for us (over Gonzaga), but each day, we’re just trying to get better. Today is another opportunity.”
Kentucky coach Mark Pope is hopeful starting point guard Lamont Butler will return “sooner rather than later” after missing Saturday’s contest because of an injury he suffered in a 70-66 loss at Clemson last week.
“It’s a matter of days,” Pope said during his radio show on Monday night. I would like for those days to include a game on Wednesday. We’ll see how that goes.”
Butler’s backup, Kerr Krissa suffered a foot injury in the second half against Gonzaga and will likely miss the next 3-6 weeks. Pope said he expects Krissa to be back “sooner than later.”
“I will miss him a lot,” Almonor said. “He brings a lot of energy — the pace he brings when he comes on the court, the vibe he brings is just great. We’ll miss him. We wish him a speedy recovery for sure.”
In addition to Kriisa’s performance on the court, he gave a pregame speech to his coaches and teammates.
“It meant a lot to us,” Almonor said. “He gave us a great speech and motivated us.”
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NEXT GAME: Colgate at Kentucky, 8 p.m., Wednesday. TV/Radio: ESPN2, UK Radio Network.
One Response
Colgate will be a tuneup game for Louisville and Ohio State. It would be a mistake for Butler or Kriisa to try to come back to soon. The last thing they need is an injury that didn’t heal and nagged them through the season. If Butler is back to play against Brown, that will be soon enough. Hopefully he will be watching the dynamics of Robinson at point being a pass first guy. Our offense requires that. Everybody’s game suffers with a shoot first point guard…except for the point guard. Hopefully the coaches will be pointing that out to everyone so Butler doesn’t feel like he is being called out.
If Kriisa is back by our home game with Tennessee, that will give him time to get back in shape by tourney time. This team was built to keep going with injuries so long as we don’t lose our big guys.
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