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Photo by Wade Upchurchby Wade Upchurch:
Kentucky’s length and size create problems for most teams, but Arkansas coach Mike Anderson said not to underestimate the way twins Andrew and Aaron Harrison are playing going into NCAA Tournament play.
“They made shots today. We had some double teams that took place early in the game that were effective. And then as the game went on, I thought the Harrison guys, they played well,” said Anderson said after No. 1 UK beat his team in the SEC Tournament title game in Nashville. “I thought both of those kids have really matured. That's a big difference in their team right now because those guys are doing what they do.
“And I think Willie Cauley‑Stein, obviously he's going to continue to do the offense thing, get some garbage, going to run the floor, get some chippies. They got to the free‑throw line 27 times. They made more free throws than we shot. You're not going to win many games like that.”
Anderson said foes can’t let Kentucky “annihilate you on the glass” and says you almost have to play UK to “gauge” its length.
“You got to match the physicality, keep them off the boards, keep them off the free‑throw line. I think you got to make them make tough shots,” Anderson said. “But they're one of the best teams in the country. But you find a team and that's what you have seen, the games where they have been close, teams shot the ball well. Teams have kind of kept them off the glass, teams have kind of really got physical with them.
“Cal has done a tremendous job of keeping them on task. That's the biggest thing. Because you can imagine there's a lot of distractions out there. But he's keeping them playing a good brand of basketball.”
Texas A&M assistant coach Rick Stansbury, the former head coach at Mississippi State, says UK is “as good as any team I ever played, and I have played against some good ones” during his coaching tenure.
“I thought the 2010 team and 2012 team were good and those guys may have been better offensively, I don’t know. Defensively, they weren’t able to cause problems this team is by switching ball screens and guarding smaller people,” Stansbury said of two previous John Calipari teams at UK. “They didn’t do that back then. Some of those guys couldn’t slide their feet and guard those other guards.
“Now you switch off big to little and you have Willie Cauley-Stein guarding a point guard on penetration. They are very hard to score on and then they have so many weapons on offense. One guy or two guys may not be at his best, but all seven or eight will not be at their worst. They just have so much firepower offensively to go with defense that been there every night.”
Even though Texas A&M took UK to overtime in January, Stansbury noted that the Aggies didn’t “get a lot of that midrange stuff when they are locked in defensively” most of the time.
“You got to score in that half-court offense against them to win, and that’s hard to do, or get something in transition and jump up and make a bunch of 3’s that they can’t guard. But if you live and die with that, you are in trouble,” Stansbury said.
Auburn coach Bruce Pearl got two chances to play Kentucky this year and had no answers for the Wildcats.
He says UK’s 2012 national championship team led by Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist was his all-time favorite team to watch because players made each other better.
“This team is more physically overwhelming than that team. And this team shoots it consistently better. And they go to the foul line. They're just pretty complete,” Pearl said. “This team is deeper (than the 2012 team). This team is bigger. This team is more physical.”
Kentucky’s 2010 team — John Calipari’s fist at UK — featured John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Eric Bledsoe and Patrick Patterson.
“This team is better because that team did not perform as well against zone. That team was inconsistent at the free-throw line. This team is not,” Pearl said.
The Auburn coach says officiating could be UK’s downfall in the NCAA Tournament.
“The game would need to be officiated in such a way where all of a sudden we're in the NCAA Tournament we start calling it closely for some reason. That would be the only thing that would be an issue and then how quickly they can adjust to that,” Pearl said. “Kentucky is a physical, strong team. And they play physically defensively and offensively. If they let them play, which I hope they would let them do come tournament time, that would be to a big, strong, physical, deep team's advantage. If for some reason they called it close, that could bother them.
“You've got to be able to match their physicality. “You've got to be able to make shots. And you've got to be able to mix up that inside outside stuff. You've got to challenge shots. You've got to contest shots. This is a really good shot-making team … they don't miss open shots.”
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