Against Kansas, the game was tied in the final three minutes before the Jayhawks prevailed. Facing Notre Dame, Kentucky rallied from a 22-point halftime deficit and had a possession to win the game, but Olivier Sarr's jumper rimmed out. Against Louisville, the game was tied with a minute to play before the Cardinals won. And against Georgia, the Cats held the lead before the Bulldogs scored with one second left to win the game.
All of this is frustrating to UK head coach John Calipari and his team. Calipari and his staff continue to work with the young Cats on these late-game situations.
"Let's see if we can finish games better. Let's see if we've got a couple daggers on this team," Calipari said on Tuesday. "In other words, you're wide open; if you make that shot, that's the dagger that wins the game. We just keep missing those. You be the dagger on this team. With four minutes to go, that's where we've got to get some daggers."
Calipari knows that the game's final minutes are where his team needs to be better.
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| Kentucky at Missouri | ||
|---|---|---|
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Wed., Feb. 3 - 7 p.m. ET |
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| Coverage | ||
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TV: ESPN2 |
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| UK | Stats | MU |
| 5-10 | Record | 11-3 |
| 4-4 | Conference Record | 4-3 |
| 67.6 | PPG | 75.2 |
| 68.3 | Opp PPG | 70.2 |
| .415 | FG% | .459 |
| .404 | Opp FG% | .411 |
| 39.0 | RPG | 37.3 |
| .290 | 3PT FG% | .301 |
| .302 | Opp 3PT FG% | .295 |
| 11.3 | APG | 13.1 |
| 6.6 | SPG | 5.9 |
| 6.1 | BPG | 3.4 |
"I just want us to play better in winning time, last four minutes," Calipari said. "We've just got to play better then, and that means playing to win, playing to be the dagger, playing to make the rebound or the play or the stop or the block that ends the game. Not, 'Ugh, we may not win.' You can't play not to lose. Play to win."
After having Saturday's game against Texas canceled due to COVID-19 protocols, the Cats are back in action on Wednesday night, facing No. 18 Missouri in Columbia. Calipari is impressed with what he has seen from Missouri.
"We've got a tough, tough game at Missouri, hard," Calipari said. "They're physical. They guard. They got a big man that's a moose. Their guard play is good. It's even better. They've got all these guys back from last year's team that we struggled with. So, it's going to be a hard, hard game."
Freshman forward Lance Ware hopes the Cats can take the lessons they are learning in practice and apply them in Wednesday's contest.
"We're just going to need to continue to play hard like we have been doing," Ware said. "Coach has been changing some things up in practice for the offensive end. So, just apply everything he's been telling us in practice yesterday and then the stuff he's going to go over today, and just really emphasize that and bring that into the game. I think that we should be OK if we just lock in and, you know, do what we have to do."
As for the team's 48-hour pause due to the COVID restrictions, Ware thinks it could be beneficial for the Cats moving forward.
"We all took the time off and kind of used it as a refresh and got our minds right," Ware said. "It gave us some time even though we were still working out. It wasn't practice. It wasn't a two-hour long practice. So, we kind of like got to decompress and just kind of refocus on the main goal and what we need to do to play and obviously win games."
Calipari and the Cats hope to come into Wednesday's game fresher and with a new purpose of performing better late in games.
Kentucky Returns After Weekend Pause for COVID-19 Safety Reasons
Kentucky's game at Missouri, which was previously scheduled for Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET, was rescheduled for Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on ESPN2.
In conjunction with Southeastern Conference COVID-19 and UK Athletics COVID-19 management requirements, the schedule was adjusted after the UK program was put on a pause over the weekend following a combination of positive testing, contact tracing and subsequent quarantining of individuals within the program. Kentucky's game vs. Texas on Saturday, part of the annual SEC/Big 12 Challenge, was canceled because of the pause.
The health and safety of Wildcat student-athletes, coaches and staff remains UK Athletics' No. 1 priority.
Kentucky is 13-1 all-time vs. Missouri, including 4-1 in games played in Columbia, Missouri. UK has won three straight games in the series, including the Wildcats' last matchup at Missouri in 2019.
Even with the cancellation of the Texas game, UK is in the middle of a stretch that features five straight opponents ranked in the top 40 of the NCAA Evaluation Tool. The streak started with the LSU game and, as of now, will end next week at home vs. Arkansas.
Defense!
Although Kentucky's record may not reflect it, UK's defense this season has been very good. The Wildcats are yielding 68.3 points per game, 40.4% shooting by the opposition overall and 30.2% from behind the arc, while averaging 6.1 blocks and 6.6 steals per game.
Through games on Jan. 30, Kentucky ranked 14th nationally in defensive efficiency, according to KenPom.com. KenPom.com also rates UK's effective field-goal percentage defense (45.8%) and block percentage (15.6) among the top 50 in the nation. Kentucky has yielded more than 1.0 points per possession in just four games.
Five times this season, Kentucky has lost despite holding teams to 66 points or less. Under John Calipari, that had only occurred 13 times in 407 games prior to this season -- essentially occurring once every 31 games under his direction.
UK is 206-23 under Calipari when holding the opposition to 40% or less from the field but only 4-4 this season. The Wildcats have held five of their last six opponents to less than 40% from the floor, including four straight games.
The Rule of 76
With the way the defense has played this season, Kentucky doesn't have to be great offensively to win. It just can't be poor.
UK is 5-0 this season when scoring at least 76 points but 0-10 when scoring 65 or fewer. In a bit of a statistical oddity, the Wildcats have not scored between 66 and 75 points in a single game this season.
Mixing and Matching
Through 15 games this season, Kentucky has used seven different starting lineups. John Calipari has continually shaken up the lineup to try and find the right combination of players who play well together and give the Wildcats the best chance at a good start, as well as finding the lineup that finishes games. The most lineups UK has ever started under Calipari has been 10 in both 2019-20 and 2015-16.
According to KenPom.com, UK's minutes continuity at 4.6% is the worst in the country. Part of that can be attributed to Keion Brooks Jr. missing the first nine games of the season, as well as Terrence Clarke's absence over the last eight games. Both players have averaged more than 24.0 minutes per game when available.
During Calipari's tenure, eight of his teams have ranged from 21.8% continuity to the highest at 49.6% during the 2014-15 season. This season's rate is currently the lowest in Calipari's 12 seasons, with the 2012-13 team owning the previous low mark at 5.9%
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