Missouri excited about the opportunity for a rematch with Kentucky

By: LARRY VAUGHT



Before his team played at Kentucky on Jan. 13, Missouri coach Kim Anderson thought UK was the best team in the country. He certainly left Rupp Arena feeling even more convinced after his team got beat by 49 points and shot only 27 percent from the field while going 1-for-18 from 3-point range.

“When that game ended we obviously addressed it, but we didn’t prolong our discussion on it,” said  Anderson about the one-sided loss. “ I think that Kentucky is the best team in the country. They have so many weapons. They’re extremely well-coached. They just don’t have a whole lot of weaknesses and for us I think the thing that I’m going to try to talk to our guys about is, ‘Hey, this is an opportunity to play the best.’ And they are coming to Columbia, so I know we’ll have a good crowd.”

Missouri hosts unbeaten UK (19-0) Thursday night on ESPN hoping to break a five-game losing streak, including a 61-60 home loss to Arkansas on Saturday.

“ We’re going to prepare kind of like we would any other game. I just hope we prepare better, we perform better than we did in Lexington. When we went to Lexington, I thought it was a great environment,” Anderson said. “I thought coach (John) Calipari obviously had them ready to play. They were coming off a couple of close games and they responded extremely well.

“We’re excited about the opportunity to play and tough loss on Saturday. So we’re looking forward getting ready to play the best team in the country.”

Anderson said his team has changed some offensively since playing at UK, but he knows the Kentucky defense that limited South Carolina to just four field goals in the final 24 1/2 minutes on Saturday has not.

“I really think the thing that bothers you so much with Kentucky – and we all do this – they just do such a great job on their ball-screen defense because they’re so long. They can switch, they’re quick, they can switch. If they mess up, they have the advantage of having the guy at the basket to swat the basketball,” Anderson said.

“I think we have to do a better job of executing. When we went to Lexington, I thought we got kind of in a scramble mode and didn’t play with the precision that we need to play. Now it’s hard to play with precision against them, but I think you do have to do a better job of whatever it is we decide to run, of executing and making harder cuts. I think they force you to play at a little bit quicker speed sometimes and that’s something that we responded pretty well against Arkansas. So hopefully there will be some sort of carryover.”

While UK’s size inside is often cited as a big reason for Kentucky’s defensive prowess, he says the whole defense is good.

“I think their perimeter guys do a great job of guarding the basketball. The advantage that they have, the comfort level that I think they probably have – at least what I would have – is they know that they can be aggressive on the ball and they know that if a guy does get by them that they do have a lot of help in the back,” Anderson said. “And that makes it easier to put more heat on them, to put more heat on your opponent.

“But I think all those guys do — they’re giving up 50 points a game. That’s phenomenal when you think about that. Their opponents are shooting 32 percent from the field and 27 percent from 3. They’ve shot almost 200 more free throws than their opponents. Their defense has been phenomenal. In all their games, they’ve shown the ability to be able to guard the ball pretty well.”