This Time the Wildcats ‘Hog-tie” Calipari

Otega Oweh scored a season-high 24 points, his ninth 20-point game of the season, all coming in the last 13 games. He also led the team with eight rebounds and tied for the team lead with three assists. (UK Athletics Photo)

It was hard to find a Kentucky fan who thought the Wildcats would go into Arkansas and win Saturday night. Most feared the game would not be competitive after UK lost 80-55 at Vanderbilt on Tuesday and was out of sync and pushed around the entire game.

ESPN’s College GameDay crew had no faith in coach Mark Pope’s Wildcats, either.

“By any objective standard, Kentucky’s been disappointing,” college basketball analyst Jay Bilas said on GameDay about seven hours before the UK game was scheduled to start. “They’ve had some injuries that have been really debilitating — that’s been a problem. Losing Kam Williams with a broken foot, Jaland Lowe is out for the season with his shoulder, Jayden Quaintance hasn’t been available, but I expected them to be an elite defensive team, and they’ve not been that. That’s been probably the biggest disappointment for Kentucky.”

“Think about this: they’ve played eight games away from home, and they’ve been down double digits in all eight. They’ve been blown out multiple times. They got worked at Louisville, blown out against Gonzaga, blown out by Vanderbilt. They’ve been a Jekyll and Hyde team. They’ve got to get it together because this is their stretch run.”

And the Cats did “get it together” in a big way at Arkansas Saturday. They hit 11 of their first 13 shots, opened a 24-11 lead, and then survived all kinds of craziness in the second half to beat Arkansas and former UK coach John Calipari 85-77 and gain some revenge for last year’s disappointing loss to Calipari’s Hogs in Rupp Arena.

As poor as the overall effort was against Vanderbilt, it was that good against Arkansas.

“This is what has to happen for them to be good,” UK Radio Network analyst Jack Givens said. The way they won it is the way you have to play in the SEC. This could be a season-changing game for this season.”

Never ever did I think before the game that Calipari would be saying UK “out-toughed” his team but that’s exactly what he said after the game and he was right. The same players who got knocked around by Vandy and could not fight through screens on defense — or set screens on offense — were super efficient against the Hogs.

Suddenly, the lopsided loss at Vandy that ended UK’s five-game streak does not seem that bad. Kentucky is 6-3 in SEC play with another road win over a ranked team and clearly off the NCAA Tournament bubble — at least for now.

“Kentucky had the right formula with the way it was putting the ball on the deck to attack Arkansas,” ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla said during the game. “Kentucky also showed a lot of poise in the second half when Arkansas did come back.”

Kentucky had a 42-35 halftime lead before getting three technical fouls in 38 seconds in the second half — one each on Brandon Garrison,  Mo Dioubate, and coach Mark Pope. Garrison earned him, but the other two were questionable. Still, it propelled Arkansas to the lead, got the home fans roaring, and UK looked shaken. However, Kentucky didn’t fold and slowly took charge again, thanks to terrific team play and solid performances from many players.

— Otega Oweh got 24 points on 12 shots, including nine he made. He went to the foul line 11 times and made six. But he also had eight rebounds to help UK win the battle 35-26, along with three assists in 38 minutes. Maybe more importantly, he played solid defense on Arkansas point guard Darius Acuff, who did score 22 points but was only 8-for-20 from the field.

Oweh‘s 24 points, eight rebounds, and three assists had not been done by a Kentucky player in a true road game since Jodie Meeks in 2009, according to UK stats guru Corey Price

— Collin Chandler continued his second-half heroics. He hit perhaps the biggest shot of the game with a rainbow 3-pointer after Arkansas got the lead and then helped ice the game with a terrific fadeaway shot in the paint. He had 13 points on 5-for-9 shooting and no turnovers in 23 minutes.

— Point guard Denzel Aberdeen played 38 minutes without making a turnover. He had 10 points and three assists along with a blocked shot.

— Malachi Moreno, who was no factor at Vandy, had a sensational second half and finished with 11 points on 4-for-7 shooting, seven rebounds (including five offensive), and two blocked shots.

“It seems like Malachi goes in at halftime, and somebody says you can’t get pushed around. He seems to be a different guy in the second half,” Givens said. “The big challenge for him now is to do this for both halves. Be the paint stopper, be that guy, and he’s very capable of that. He has to give the whole game.”

— Dioubate was only 1-for-5 from the field, but scoring is not his forte. He had five rebounds and three blocks in 26 minutes, and his hustle and defense can be contagious.

“Mo was just amazing. They tried to bait him into shooting jump shots. He was very, very wise and not biting into that and playing the game he has to play to be most effective,” Givens said.

— And what about sophomore Trent Noah? He went a long period without even getting into a game. He had 19 meaningful minutes at Arkansas and responded much as he did in some of UK’s big wins last season. He hit his only 3-point shot, went 6-for-8 at the foul line, pulled off seven defensive rebounds, and did not have a turnover.

“There are times when you walk in for shoot-around, and you see a guy, and you can just see that the rim looks like it’s seven feet wide, and Trent just had that vibe,” Pope said on the UK Radio Network after the game. “I told him this morning, ‘Trent, I don’t know why, I just feel it in my bones that you’re gonna have a game tonight,’ and he delivered.

“His ball screens were great. He came in and got a couple of early defensive rebounds, clean rebounds that were really important. Controlled the ball, was good defensively, made shots, and made free throws. He was really good.”

Actually, this game, Kentucky was really, really good and registered its largest margin of victory as an unranked opponent in a true road game against a SEC team ranked in the top 15 since winning at No. 5 Tennessee by seven points two years ago. And one more notable stat from Price — this is the first time in program history that an unranked UK team has beaten two ranked SEC teams (Tennessee and Arkansas) away from home in the same season.