Cats make late surge past Arkansas for 63-57 win​

Kentucky center Ugonna Onyenso blocked a shot by Arkansas guard El Ellis during Saturday's game at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville. (Nelson Chenault/USA Today Sports)

Jeff Drummond • CatsIllustrated
Managing Editor Edit
@JDrumUK

Shaking off its worst first-half offensive showing of the season, Kentucky found its familiar shooting stroke in the second half of Saturday's game at Arkansas.

The No. 6 Wildcats leaned on their much-maligned defense to hang in the game long enough to knock down seven of 11 shots from the 3-point arc in the second half of a 63-57 win at Bud Walton Arena.

Kentucky (15-4, 5-2 SEC) missed 15 of the first 16 shots it attempted in the first half and fell behind by as many as 10 points. But the Cats trimmed the deficit to two at the half and got into a much better rhythm in the second half.

"We did a couple of wrinkles (in the second half) offensively," UK head coach John Calipari said, "because, one, this team is smart. I can say we're going to play, if we don't get something, this is how we're going to play it to finish, even though we haven't work on it. (cont)

...

Dj
Reed
Reeves
Mitchell
Onyenso (surprisingly)

Rob (big minutes), Thiero (moderate minutes) and Pick one of Ivisic and Bradshaw off the bench and that’s it.

Gain another W on the “winningest program of all time”

Suck it HD.

It is clear who the 8 are in the mind of Calipari.

Wagner
Reed
Reeves
Dilly (DNP tonight)
Adou
Mitchell
Ugo
Bradshaw

Edwards down to a season low 9 minutes tonight even with Dillingham out. Ivisic barely saw the floor....don't really agree there but is what it is. Z needs to get a little run for Bradshaw disappearing acts and foul trouble. Otherwise I think this is the rotation.

He had his hands on him?

That's what they get.

We have no First Round Draft choices. If we do then it is a very very very weak draft.

Has lead in his pants. Never seen a 7 footer with such a low vertical. He makes Dakari Johnson look like Jordan.

Ugly as heck but we will take it...

Im not sure I’ve ever seen a more clean blocked shot, and they called a foul. I don’t think any part of Sheppard got within 6” of the Ark player. And the announcers barely even mentioned it.

about to come out of the traditional January swoon. We are freshman heavy and they are about to get through the "Freahman wall". Just have to refine roles and get ready for the tournament.

ago with the big sneakers?

GO CATS!!!
WOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

Reed needs to run our offense primarily. Wagner and Reeves OFF the ball.

He is so skilled at creating space and has eyes in the back of his head, he has a knack for finding the open man.

This is how we ended the last 8 mins or so of the game, and the proof is in the pudding.

Just my opinion but it is glaringly obvious

On FD. I'll take the Cats.

The first half fouls were even or maybe one team had 1 more than the other. Self gets a Technical at the end of the first half. 2nd half fouls is Iowa state 10 and Kansas has 4 with 6 minutes left. It’s comical the corruption with officials in college basketball

Not sure if he plays much tonight or at all

LMAO

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Not only does he not know how to coach, he doesn’t even know how to manage a roster or substitute correctly lol

Gonna take him a while to knock the rust off his game. Those 3 straight missed lay-ups off the rebound were brutal; had me losing my sh!t. Damn shame, since he was playing so good pre-injury.

He hasn’t been playing well at all. Freshman slump? Defenses figured him out? Cal?

Over came the horrible sec refs. Great learning experience.

Outstanding!!

... with the lineup and minute distribution for Saturday's game.

A couple of issues play into why TO reduce and why NOT TO reduce the number of players in the rotation.

1. Coaches typically don't mess with lineups while they're winning. Cal has historically not altered much after January until after a loss. Off the top of my head, I remember Diallo and Whitney both getting fewer minutes and even moving out of the starting lineup after a Jan loss. (I'm sure there are others, but those pop into mind.)

2. Unfortunately, if Thiero returns Saturday, it will be our FIRST game with the entire lineup. Cal usually reduces rotation in late January. However, I understand him wanting to tinker with the rotation a few more games to figure out who's going to rise to the occasion.

Here's my guess of what we'll see on Saturday.

-I think Edwards doesn't start, and his minutes get reduced to the 12-14 min range. (These will obviously increase if he does well while he's in the game.)
-Reed & Rob no longer come off the bench at the same time. One of them starts the game.
- The mins for the trio of Bradshaw, Z, and Ugo get paired down to mainly two players. I'm guessing Bradshaw and Z get the minutes. Ugo only gets mins if one of the bigs gets in foul trouble. (Cal really needs to figure out what Z can do on both ends of the floor.)
- Thiero will get some mins to figure out where he now fits. If healthy, he'll get more of Edwards' minutes.

The lineup I want to see get alot of run is: 3 guards, Mitchell, and Big Z. I understand that we're just getting to see all the pieces at one time. I'm sure Cal wanted to do this in Dec, but circumstances didn't permit it. I'm ready to roll with a rotation of: Our 4 guards, Mitchell, Bradshaw, and Z. That's 7 players. Thiero & Edwards can battle for the 8th spot.

Regardless of rotation, I expect to see changes in the distribution of minutes moving ahead.