Kentucky Basketball Notebook

By: LARRY VAUGHT




LEXINGTON — Aaron Harrison won’t say that games are boring or not important now, but he also would not deny that he is already looking ahead to March.

The No. 1 Wildcats ran their record to 21-0 here Saturday night with a 70-55 victory over Alabama.

Harrison hit three straight game-winning shots in NCAA Tournament play last year when UK reached the national championship game before losing to Connecticut.

“The freshmen have an idea what it will be like, but they really don’t know,” said Harrison, who had 10 points, two assists, two rebounds and two steals in a team-high 32 minutes against Alabama. “The older guys are excited and know how important and how hard the games are in March. We are just excited.”

He smiled as he talked about that possibility even though UK still has 10 regular-season games remaining before postseason play starts.

“March is the best time of year and the highest level,” he said.

However, there is still work for Kentucky to do before March and coach John Calipari said learning to continue to build on a substantial lead is one key.

“That's the one thing this team's not doing, putting people away when they get that opportunity,” Calipari said noting how UK had a chance to put Alabama away in the first half but led only 37-24 at halftime.

“As a team, we need to continue not to give up sometimes when we get tired (late in a defensive possession) and give up an offensive rebound or make a silly turnover when we have the ball,” Harrison said. “That keeps you from putting a team away.

“I think we are beating teams handily but we have had opportunities to make big plays or big runs and lose sight of putting a team away. We’ve got to work on that.”

This was the second straight game Kentucky played against a team it beat easily earlier in January. Kentucky won both games by wide margins.

“You just have to know people are going to come and play hard. You have to be ready for everything, and we were,” Harrison said. “We played with patience. Alabama played physical and we just had to play disciplined.”

Lyles missing: Kentucky played without freshman Trey Lyles, who was not even at Rupp Arena because of an illness.

“He brings so much to the table, so much to the team but as a team, he knows that we’re all here for him knowing he’s not here today,” sophomore Marcus Lee said.

“With Trey Lyles being out, this was a good win,” Calipari said.

The coach also said he did not know if Lyles would be back for UK’s home game with Georgia Tuesday.

No Willis: With Lyles out, sophomore forward Derek Willis still did not get any playing time. Calipari started guard Dominique Hawkins in Lyles’ spot, but even he played only nine minutes.

“He's going to have his opportunities and when he has them ...,” Calipari said.

He said part of the issue is that Harrison, Devin Booker and Andrew Harrison all deserved more minutes because of the way they were playing

“Now Aaron played 32 minutes, I didn't know I played him that many minutes, I was hoping those guys got around 28 and the others did. Andrew got 28. He probably got a couple of Devin's minutes,” Calipari said.

“But again I haven't subbed this way this year, so it's hard to keep track of who is in and who is out. But I liked Tyler (Ulis) and Andrew together. I thought that was good. But we're now a different team without Trey. So we change again.”