By: LARRY VAUGHT
LEXINGTON — Kentucky coach John Calipari said Monday “enough is enough” with the close games UK has had recently, so Tuesday night No. 1 UK responded with a 86-37 beatdown of outmanned Missouri in Rupp Arena.
The Cats dominated this game in every way possible after surviving an overtime game a week earlier with Mississippi here and then needing double overtime to win at Texas A&M.
This game, UK relied on balance and depth to wear out the Tigers. Calipari went back to a two-platoon system by inserting sophomore guard Dominique Hawkins into the first platoon with guards Andrew and Aaron Harrison, Willie Cauley-Stein and Karl-Anthony Towns. He moved Trey Lyles back to the second platoon with Devin Booker, Tyler Ulis, Dakari Johnson and Marcus Lee.
Hawkins’ play seemed to help re-energize the Cats because of his all-out hustle on both ends. Missouri coach Kim Anderson said UK dominated the game.
“I thought they came out and physically controlled us from the start. I know we didn’t shoot a free throw in the first half. We probably didn’t play hard enough to shoot a free throw. We talked before the game about being more physical on the inside. Trying to do a good job of rebounding and obviously we didn’t do that. Great game for them, bad game for us,” said Anderson.
Anderson said this was a different UK team than the one that played the last two games.
“The thing I thought about this team the last two games was that they probably didn’t play with the same pace as they did tonight, and I thought the other two teams did a better job of slowing them down,” Anderson said. “We did not and we weren’t as physical. The most impressive thing about Kentucky (was) the players. You can talk about everything else, but the most impressive thing about Kentucky is they know how to win and they figure out how to win.
“When they get behind they figure out how to get ahead, and obviously that’s good coaching, that’s good players, but it’s an attitude. I think that is the most impressive thing. The two games before this, Ole Miss and Texas A&M, those two teams played great and it got down to the end and Kentucky made the plays. That’s the biggest compliment I can give them.”
Anderson said he thought UK shot “88 percent and didn’t miss” in the game. Instead, UK shot only 48 percent.
“I just thought that tonight this is what kind of scared me coming in is that I knew they hadn’t played great. The last couple of games, I knew they were really going to come out (playing hard), and one of our problems has been guarding dribble penetration at times during the year. Another problem has been our screen defense has been somewhat sporadic at times and both were really bad tonight. Consequently, they let those guys get to the lanes and make plays,” the Missouri coach said.
The Missouri coach said having two full platoons was an advantage.
“I think from a freshness standpoint, I think that (when) you got five guys and then you substitute five, that is good or better. I think the biggest thing is the guys seem to buy into it and embrace it,” Anderson said. “He’s done a good job of showing that it’s the best way to play. They’re 16-0 so it seems to be working pretty good.”
Kentucky used a 20-2 scoring run midway of the first half to break the game open.
“We didn’t execute and do what we needed to do. It was 14-10, then 19-10 and then after that it was off to the races. I thought that their defense forced us to panic a little bit a lot offensively and we were on our heels. They played really physical. They really played physical. And (when you give up) 25 second-chance points, you’re not going to win very many games,” Anderson said.