LEXINGTON, Ky.– It was a week filled with anxiety for Kentucky basketball fans.
Their beloved Wildcats had already lost to three Top 50 teams– Michigan State, North Carolina and Baylor– and were approaching judgment day against defending national champion Louisville Saturday at Rupp Arena.
Not only was the ongoing rivalry between these two bitter instate rivals important to the fans in the Commonwealth, it was equally important in the on going trail/sage of whether John Calipari’s one and done philosophy is a sustainable model to keep the Big Blue among the nation’s elite.
Although he may eat breakfast at Wheeler’s like the former UK coaches who have won championships, it is yet to be determined if what is good for Cal is good for the Wildcats and its loyal followers.
Whether it was the Cats finally maturing during a 73-66 victory over the Cardinals or just another case of Rupp magic, coach Cal remained in chambers 40 minutes before providing a deposition. Although it was one small step toward a national championship, it was a giant step for the Wildcats, who’s play may not have lived up to their reputation but still found a way to stifle Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino’s sixth-ranked Cardinal without their best player down the stretch, re-igniting the electricity Rupp is known for and re-energizng the passionate fan base.
Kentucky ‘s 6-9, 245-pound freshman power forward Julius Randle may have reminded Louisville Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino of one of his favorite players he ever coached, power forward Jamal Mashburn duriing the first half. Mashburn led a Pitino-coached Kentucky team to the Final Four in 1993. Randle was similarly unstoppeable, beasting his way to 17 points on 7 of 8 shooting and overwhelming four different overmatched Louisville front court defenders — Wayne Blackshear, Montrezl Harrell, Luke Hancock and Chane Behanan, as Kentucky stormed back from an 8-0 deficit at the start of the game to a 41-36 lead.
Randle cramped up twice in the second half and only played four minutes, going scoreless and failing to grab a rebound before leaving the game for in agony good with the score tied at 51-51 and 11:10 left on the clock. “Three bags of IV (fluid) and the doc was squeezing it in,” Calipari joked, “because I was saying, get him back, squeeze it.”
Randle, who should be a top 3 NBA draft pick, is one of five Top 9 recruits on this year’s talented Kentucky team. Without him, the other members of college basketball’s youngest, least experienced team put away those hang dog looks that had been their signature long enough to shepherd the ‘Cats across the finish line without their leading scorer and rebounder, which made this win all that more significant.
“When Julius got hurt, it was a tie game, but we all believed we could still win,” freshman point guard Andrew Harrison said. “That’s growing up in itself. … That’s just showing how much heart this team has. I know we get criticized a lot for being young and body language and stuff like that. But we knew we could win this game. And going against a great team like Louisville, we knew we had to bring it.”
Sophomore forward Alex Poythress, Randle’s backup and the closest thing Kentucky has to an elder statesmen, scored 7 points and grabbed 5 rebounds, showing fresh signs of aggressiveness that could make him another Darrius Miller by March . More importantly, he was a plus 21 in point differential while he was on the floor.
Andrew Harrison played his best game of the year, finally playing within himself. He scored 18 points and played unselfishly when the game was on the line, driving into traffic with two minutes to play and finding an open Poythrees for a game clinching dunk instead of forcing up a shot.
Freshman wing James Young had 18 poibts and 10 rebounds on 17 shots — way to many by our count– but he made the shots that mattered, like the three he drained moments after Louisville’s Luke Hancock drilled a big three to bring the Cards without four points toward the end of the game.
“Thought we grew up today,” Calipari said. “This is the youngest team I’ve ever coached, ever. I’m learning. Believe me when I tell you, I’ve never coached a team this young, and so there’s so many things that we’re doing, trying to figure out as we go. This isn;t about Coach Cal stuff. This is about building a team.
“This is about players playing as a team This team is becoming a good team. We haven’t been all year. Now we’re starting. You know why? Because they knew if they didn’t play together, they had no shot in this game.”
Calipari will try to speed up the process with a week of of three a day practices. The Cats don’t play again until league season opens Jan. 8 against Mississippi State.
The Cats looked much more prepared for take a punch against Lousville, which suddenly has questions of its own with an underachieving front line. Kentucky defended particularly well at the perimeter in the second half, limiting U of L guard Russ Smith to just two points in the final 15 minutes and neutralized point guard Chris Jones, who went off for 15 points in the first half, but only had three in the second.
Kentucky’s collection of future pros could have made it easier on themselves if they had shot better from the field (27-63, 43.5 percent), the three (3 for 14, 21.4 percent and the foul line (16 for 30, 53.3) so it was hard to evaluate whether this was fool’s gold or a complete buy in. But the Cats played hard and did what they had to do to win.
In many ways, this was a must win because it raises hopes for a season that could have casaded out of control. Had the Cats lost its fourth game to a marquee opponent before New Year’s, the emotional scars would have been so deep it might have been time to call in Dr. Phil for a consultation.
Calipari will always be combative in games like this.
Unlike Pitino, who have won two national championships and has been inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame, Calipari always feels like he has something to prove Where Pitino doubts himself every day and works harder because he knows there are people out there who are better, Calipari works harder because he wants people to notice how good he is. And maybe he is. He has been good enough to win at UMass, Memphis and Kentucky, where each of he products are brought from a different aisle.
