Jan 29, 2013; Memphis, TN, USA; Mississippi Rebels forward Murphy Holloway (31) goes up for a dunk and is guarded by Kentucky Wildcats forward Nerlens Noel (3) during the game at the Tad Smith Coliseum. Kentucky Wildcats defeated the Mississippi Rebels 87-74. Mandatory Credit: Spruce Derden–USA TODAY Sports
Righting the ship?
For whatever reason, these Wildcats responded in a 75-70 win over LSU. Even though Kentucky let a big lead slip away again, they responded in the clutch and Alex Poythress was front and center in the improvement. Poythress had 20 points and 12 rebounds and played with real emotion. Nerlens Noel swatted 6 shots. And when some things seemed on the rise, other problems lingered. Ryan Harrow saw just 24 minutes of action nut had 11 points. On the negative side, he had one assist versus two turnovers and was pulled a few times in favor of Jarrod Polson.
The one thing that was lacking on the Kentucky tournament resume at this point was a big quality win. They got that chance with a visit to #16 Ole Miss on January 29. The game had the big game mentality and Nerlens Noel shined with a performance similar to Anthony Davis in last years title game versus Kansas. After a nip and tuck first half, Kentucky pulled away in the second half to take a 73-56 lead thanks to the aggressive play of Alex Poythress and Kyle Wiltjer.
But as the script was for the season, nothing would come easy for UK. Ole Miss responded with a furious 16-0 run and pulled to within 73-72 at the 4:29 mark and the worse news was that Nerlens Noel had four fouls and Ole Miss was going right at him in the paint. But then a funny thing happened. Instead of folding like a cheap card table on the road, these Wildcats responded and showed a will to win that had not been shown all year.
Ryan Harrow drilled a three pointer. The normally poor FT shooting Wildcats hit 9-10 FT’s down the stretch. And despite the four fouls, Nerlens Noel had four huge blocks down the stretch and finished with a school record 12 blocks for the game. All of this came despite just two points for Davis and just one shot taken the whole game. But Kentucky’s other players stepped up with the scoring. Kyle Wiltjer had 26 and Archie Goodwin 24 as the Cats pulled away down the stretch for an 87-74 win.
The Ole Miss win rejuvenated the Wildcats as they ripped off three more wins over Texas A&M, South Carolina, and Auburn. While lingering problems continued to flare, you had the sense that the Wildcat team was rounding into shape and ready to make a real NCAA run. There were warts of course. Alex Poythress continued his disappearing act, taking just 13 shots in the three games and scoring a grand total of 20 points. Even though he had some decent games, John Calipari’s frustration with Ryan Harrow was growing as Jarrod Polson was seeing more and more time. Willie Cauley-Stein was very inconsistent as he would play big one game and regress others and was a true liability at the FT line. And Kentucky continued to struggle on the road, needing overtime to beat a weak Texas A&M team.
But good things were happening. Nerlens Noel was the heart and soul of this team and was making a case for Player of the Year while emerging as a true leader. Julius Mays was starting to rediscover his outside stroke, hitting 10 three-pointers in the three games and becoming more vocal as a leader. Kyle Wiltjer started to emerge as well, showing off some passing skills that he had not shown previously. At times, Wiltjer was the best passer on the team and the team was responding to him on the court and seemed to play some of their best ball when Wiltjer was involved in directing the offense.
After this five game win streak, the seasons longest, Kentucky found themselves back in the AP poll, at #25. Despite the struggles, there was reason for optimism. Five Kentucky players scored in double digits versus Auburn and Wiltjer and Cauley-Stein stepped up in that game. And even though it was just Auburn, Kentucky was able to offset a 1-6 shooting point performance for just three points by Archie Goodwin and Alex Poythress taking just five shots. Kentucky was 17-6 on the year and 8-2 in the SEC. And they were winning while overcoming their own flaws. Despite the rough season, Kentucky was poised to make a run at a SEC Title with a road game at Florida.
February 12, 2013; Gainesville, FL, USA; Kentucky Wildcats forward Nerlens Noel (3) reacts on the ground after hurting his knee against the Florida Gators during the second half at the Stephen C. O
Save Our Season
The biggest game of the year was here and it was on one of the toughest road courts in the NCAA, the O’Connell Center in Gainesville. Florida was the class of the SEC but had shown recent vulnerability, so there was cause for optimism for Kentucky. And a quick 4-0 start by Kentucky seemed to reaffirm that optimism, but the Gators answered with an 8-0 run. UK challenged UF early and took an 11-10 lead on a Archie Goodwin dunk, but the continual theme and problems was about to rear their ugly head.
Kentucky struggled against Florida’s pressure and the turnovers ensued. Combine that with the characteristic cold spell and Florida took a 10 point lead at 25-15 on a Scottie Wilbekin three pointer. Kentucky continued to struggle, missing easy shots inside and turning the ball over and Florida took a 38-25 lead at halftime. In the second half, Florida stretched the lead to 19 but Kentucky had one last rally left in them.
A Julius Mays three pointer cut the lead to 57-45 and Kentucky had a couple of possessions to get within double digits but could not. Then off a turnover, Florida’s Mike Rosario streaked down the court, seemingly wide open to convert on a lay up. But doing like he has done all year, Nerlens Noel gave chase and made a block of the Rosario shot on a patented hustle play. And in the course of that action, Noel’s knee crumpled and he collapsed to the floor of the court, howling in pain. After several minutes of silence punctuated by Noel’s screams of agony, his team mates made a human stretcher of sorts and carried him off the court. From then, the game was a blur as Kentucky, rightfully having lost focus, succumbed to the Gators by a 69-52 count.
The presence of Noel would not have affected this game anyway. Ryan Harrow played just 19 minutes and spent most of the game being yelled at by John Calipari. Alex Poythress went 1-9. And even though Willie Cauley-Stein led the team with ten points, he was manhandled most of the game by Patric Young. Sitting in the press seats, I was close enough to see a couple of things that do not translate on TV: the fear and uncertainty in Alex Poythress’s eyes and the horrible body language some UK players, especially Archie Goodwin, that displayed in the time-outs. It was obvious that players not only were not buying into Calipari’s system, they were ignoring it. And unfortunately the loss of the game was not the biggest loss.
The news after the game was not unexpected. Noel had torn his ACL and would miss the rest of the season. And Kentucky, somehow, had to replace not only his leadership, but his role as a human eraser who corrected so many of this teams defensive mistakes.
Four days later in Knoxville, Kentucky showed just how much they depended on Nerlens Noel as they were drubbed 88-58 by a 13-10 Volunteer team. It was more surprising to see where the leadership came from in this game: a player that averaged 6 points a game last year, a former walk-on, and a transfer from Wright State. Kyle Wiltjer, Jarrod Polson, and Julius Mays scored 41 of Kentucky’s 58 points. The possible NBA draft freshmen combined for 13 points and 7 of those were from Goodwin. Ryan Harrow was non-existent and scoreless for the second straight game and fouled out in just 18 minutes. It took Poythress 20 minutes to foul out.
The real eye opener after this game waas the comments of John Calipari. All season long he has made the comments of “I like my team” and even took the blame for several losses, putting it all on him rather than his players. After Tennessee, he unloaded and it was not hard to tell who he was talking about:
"“But you know — We got a couple guys that are basically not real coachable. You tell them over and over and over what you want to do, what they have to do, and they do their own thing. That’s where we are. … We’re leaving every time out, this is what you must do, boom, boom, boom. Then the guy comes out and does the opposite three things.”"
And for Kentucky fans who so love to name their memorable teams, there was a nickname for this team: The Uncoachables.
The frustration was evident after the Tennessee game as Willie Cauley-Stein sent out a tweet complaining about the “fake fans” at UK. Clearly the season was in a tailspin and something big needed to happen.