WILDCATS

Cats want swagger back for Mizzou matchup

Kyle Tucker

LEXINGTON, Ky. — After his previously dominant team needed three total overtimes to beat Ole Miss and Texas A&M last week, University of Kentucky coach John Calipari met with players individually Monday — then later with the whole group — seeking answers to some important questions.

"Have we lost our edge? Have we lost our swagger? Have we lost a little bit of our focus?" Calipari asked. "And then, if we have, what was it? What was our swag about? What was our focus about? What was our edge? And then the question becomes: How do we get it back? If we lost it, what were reasons we could have lost it?"

The top-ranked Wildcats, of course, have the luxury of performing such soul searching without having actually suffered a loss. They escaped overtime against the Rebels and double overtime on the road against the Aggies to remain unbeaten, but unblemished is not exactly accurate.

After allowing an average of just 47.8 points and 29.7 percent shooting through 13 games, Kentucky (15-0, 2-0 SEC) has given up an average of 75 points and 40.6 percent shooting to open league play. Two Associated Press poll voters flipped from the Cats to the only other undefeated team, Virginia, atop their ballot this week.

"You don't want to go through a season when you're never in a close game. You don't learn about your team. You need to be down 10 or 12 and see how they respond," Calipari said. "But enough is enough. We've had enough of these games now. Let's get some games that are a little bit easier for us, but I don't think we'll have any."

Well, there's Tuesday night's game against Missouri (7-8, 1-1) at Rupp Arena. The Tigers were already depleted — they lost their top three scorers from last season's team — and will be without prized freshman and second-leading scorer Montaque Gill-Caesar against the Cats.

While the scored an upset over LSU last week, they followed it up with a loss to talent-deficient Auburn. So forgive Missouri coach Kim Anderson if he does not take heart in UK's near losses.

"I wish they hadn't had a couple of close games, to be quite candid with you," Anderson said. "If anything, they've been challenged two games in a row, probably haven't played their best game, and they still won. And I think that says a lot about their team and about their program.

"So you can look at it two ways. You can look at it like, 'Well, you know, Ole Miss and A&M pushed them to the wire; maybe we can, too.' Or, 'Ole Miss and A&M pushed them to the wire and, uh-oh, we're going into Rupp Arena and they're going to be upset and they're going to really be ready to play.' "

Calipari and the Cats would prefer it play out like that second scenario. As for the answers to those questions, everyone seems to agree it boils down to defense. Kentucky was an elite defensive team — one for the ages, some posited — through the non-conference schedule, which featured three wins over top-10 competition.

But in the Ole Miss game and stretching into the final five minutes of the first half against A&M, the Wildcats had allowed the Rebels and Aggies to shoot a combined 50.6 percent in 60 minutes of basketball.

"We just gotta remember what we started with, what we got our name off of," forward Marcus Lee said. "One thing that we kind of knew is we were going to be a really good defensive team, and we kind of forgot about that. I'm not saying it was lost. It was just redirected.

"We were learning different things during the (nine-day layoff before SEC play). We were focusing on doing something different, knowing (defense) is something we'll always have to fall back on. We took that time to get better, and now we have to get back to what we're good at."

For his part, Calipari isn't overly concerned.

"It's all good, because I don't want us to be like it's March right now. It's too early to be like it's March," he said. "I believe I have the best team in the country with the best players. We've got some things to figure out. We'll do it together."

Kyle Tucker can be reached at (502) 582-4361. Follow him on Twitter @KyleTucker_CJ.

TODAY'S GAME

MISSOURI AT NO. 1 KENTUCKY

9 p.m., Rupp Arena

TV: ESPN Radio: WHAS-840 and WAKY-103.5