Kentucky got the road win it desperately needed at Arkansas and Wildcats coach John Calipari hopes the momentum carries over into Saturday’s game against Vanderbilt.
“If we didn’t have a little confidence going into this game, whew, because they’re good,” Calipari said Friday.
The Wildcats (14-4, 4-2 Southeastern Conference), coming off an 80-66 win Thursday at Arkansas, have a short turnaround in their return home after playing four of their past five conference games on the road.
The Commodores (11-7, 3-3) opened league play with three straight conference losses, but carry a three-game winning streak into Lexington. Vanderbilt is coming off an 88-74 win over Tennessee earlier this week in Knoxville.
“(They’re) really good — really good,” Calipari said. “They run great stuff (and) really can shoot the 3. The biggest team we’ve played. I mean, they’re huge. Their man is better than you think. Their zone, they’ll play a zone and space it out. That zone has given us trouble in the past. A really hard game for us. I’m glad we played like we did (at Arkansas) because we have a little confidence.”
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Following a 75-70 loss at Auburn in their previous outing, the Wildcats won for just the second time on the road this season against the Razorbacks behind stellar play from a pair of guards — Tyler Ulis and Jamal Murray — and post players Skal Labissiere and Derek Willis.
The performances by Willis and Labissiere provided the Wildcats with a post presence as veterans Alex Poythress and Marcus Lee continued their mid-season struggles. For the first time in eight games, Labissiere finished in double figures with 11 points and three blocked shots. Willis earned his second start of the year and finished with 12 points, seven boards and four blocks.
Labissiere said the team’s practice sessions leading up to the win over the Razorbacks played a role in the double-digit victory.
“We’ve been going at each other and I think practices, they’ve been harder than the game (Thursday night),” the freshman center said. “We’ve been going at each other and that helped a lot. Going into the game, I was a lot more confident because I had a good past three days. Not just me, but as a team.
“Going into the (Arkansas) game I was very confident about what I was going to do out there, which was just playing hard and make sure I catch everything Tyler threw at me or Jamal. That was a big difference.”
Calipari admitted he wants Labissiere to have the same impact as Karl-Anthony Towns did on last year’s squad, but understands Labissiere doesn’t have the same skill set and is making adjustments accordingly.
“I want him to be Karl and be the No. 1 pick, but he’s a jump-shooting big man,” he said. “Now, we’re going to work on that other stuff. We’re going to continue to try and help him there. Reality of it is the best part of his game is 15-foot shots and making some free throws.”
The emergence of Labissiere and Willis has served notice to veterans Lee and Poythress. Poythress scored six of the first eight points against Arkansas, but did little the remainder of the contest. Lee didn’t start and finished with four points and two rebounds before fouling out in the second half.
“They’re fighting for their lives now,” Calipari said.
Prior to the visit to Fayetteville, Calipari delved into the “1990 playbook” to help motivate his squad.
“All we talked about was ‘refuse to lose’ for two days,” he said. “You may run into time, but you refuse to lose. Refuse to lose. I don’t care what happens. Keep playing. You do not—now you may run out of time, and that’s OK, but we haven’t played that way. And today we did, I thought. We played one game that way.”
Kentucky connection
Former Knott County Central standout and reigning Kentucky Mr. Basketball Cameron Justice is in his first season with the Commodores.
Justice is averaging 4.3 points and 12.6 minutes per game.
Game tracker: Vanderbilt at Kentucky, 4 p.m., Saturday. TV/Radio: ESPN, 98.1 FM WBUL.
Keith Taylor is a columnist and senior sports writer who covers University of Kentucky athletics for KyForward.com