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  • Kentucky-Buffalo notebook

    LEXINGTON — It’s mid-November, but Kentucky and Kansas play Tuesday night in Indianapolis in a matchup of teams ranked in the top five already and both considered potential Final Four teams.

    Yet Kentucky sophomore Dakari Johnson insisted after Sunday’s win over Buffalo that this was just another game to No. 1 UK.

    “It’s another game we’re going to have to really compete and go out there. Kansas is a really good team, so we’re just going to have to go out there and everybody’s going to have to go out there and play their best,” said Johnson.

    However, Johnson does know the atmosphere for the Champions Classic that also includes a Duke-Michigan State matchup will be special.

    “It’s going to be crazy. I’m thinking it’s going to be a big crowd. But we can’t focus on the atmosphere. We have to go out there — it’s two teams playing on the court —and we just have to compete,” he said. “I’m looking forward to playing every game. I’m just going in there with the same mentality that I do before every game.”

    Freshman Tyler Ulis does call Tuesday’s matchup a “big game” and the kind he’s been ready to play at Kentucky.

    “It’s going to be a big game. We’re all ready and we’re excited to play,” he said. “I just can’t wait to play. We’re all excited for the game and we’ll see what happens.”

    Ulis said falling behind Buffalo at halftime Sunday was a good learning lesson for the Cats going into the Kansas game.

    “We have to keep it going all the time. We can’t take plays off and we have to keep the energy up and just play hard,” Ulis said.

    Johnson hopes the team did learn a lesson against Buffalo.

    “We just have to not take any team for granted. We just need to come out here and play, and as long as we do that, that will be great. We just have to play our hardes,” Johnson said. “We have a lot of guys that can compete at a high level, so we just need to go out there and compete.”

    No one will likely compete harder against Kansas than freshman Trey Lyles, an Indianapolis native. His father, Tom, joked they could even have team members and family members over for the pre-game meal.

    “It’s going to be great to have him playing at home,” Tom Lyles said.

    It will be the UK freshman’s first game back in Indiana since he led Arsenal Tech to a state championship in March on the same court where the Champions Classic will be played.

    “It’s going to be a great atmosphere. Guys are going to be going out there and playing hard. We just gotta go out there and play for one another and play with energy,” Lyles said. “Being back at home is definitely a big factor to me. But it’s just another game and we gotta approach it that way and approach it with a lot of energy.”

    Lyles does have a dilemma trying to find enough tickets for family and friends. Teammates are helping, but not Ulis.

    “My family (from Chicago) travels to games, so I may need tickets myself,” he said Sunday.

    Tempo: John Calipari said he never considered abandoning the platoon system when Buffalo had a first-half lead over his team Sunday. His players weren’t as sure.

    Johnson said he thought a “little bit” that the platoon system might end.

    “He told us, if they’re not working, he’s going to play to win. He’s going to play to win games, so whoever’s out there fighting, he’s going to play. And that’s what you have to do, just go out there and compete,” Johnson said.

    Ulis said the second platoon of Devin Booker, Johnson, Marcus Lee, Lyles and himself has to bring energy to the game.

    “I feel like we didn’t start off the game very well. We didn’t have much energy, but we came in and tried to amp it up a little bit,” Ulis said Sunday. “And then they got it going. But, like I said, the other team made a lot of shots. They were on fire early in the half. So you know we went down at the half.

    “We knew we were not playing well enough. We weren’t playing, we weren’t fighting. We just had to come out and do better. We amped up the energy (the second half). We got into them and made them, forced them to turn the ball over, forced them to get to the basket and finish over top of us instead of giving them open 3’s. That’s how we have to play.”

    Kentucky didn’t back off the press against Buffalo in the second half Sunday because Calipari wants to continue to force a fast pace.

    “We could have backed up off the press start of the second half. The reason I didn't do it is they're not making us get out of a press. We'll do what we choose to do. I want my team to know that,” Calipari said. “So we pressed a little bit different. We didn't stop pressing until the last few plays.

    “So what they did was they are very quick and athletic at guard they were able to control themselves. We do not control them. Any good team, you're not going to control a good team when you press. You're trying to wear them down. We did at some point, I thought. We made a couple plays and a couple baskets.”

    Energetic: Calipari said his team has 10 first-half turnovers against Buffalo due to a lack of energy.

    “They had more energy than us. You're always a step behind; they were pretty quick. You don't have enough energy, you look really slow and they look really quick they look like they're controlling everything because you don't have enough energy,” Calipari said. “The reason you can have the energy and have no excuse is all you got to do is go three, four minutes as hard as you can go. If you're really going good, I'll leave you in another minute or two if you can do it. We did that a little bit today.”

    The second half UK forced 10 turnovers and allowed just 14 points.

    “Because our energy went up, and then they were on their heels. The biggest thing is they scored 14 points in the second half. I want you to know they scored 14 points in the second half. So that means we all defended; no one broke down,” he said.

    "Again, being able to block shots makes it hard. You know, when you come in just say,’ Just drive the ball.’ You're looking on the two 7-footers under there and a 6-10 guy. So it's not as easy as easy as you say, but we broke down in the first half. Not enough energy. We were reaching. We played better in the second half. The whole team had great energy in the second haft. Whole team did. What we were in the second half, that's who we should be the whole game. There is no reason not to if you're playing half the game (with the platoon system).”
    Comments 1 Comment
    1. dan_bgblue's Avatar
      dan_bgblue -
      Thanks for all the quotes. Tuesday is going to be a real test of this year's tweak
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