By Keith Taylor
Special to NKyTribune
Kentucky has been lucky in its first two visits to Texas A&M.
A year ago, the Wildcats needed double overtime to fend off the Aggies, 70-64 and escaped with a 72-68 triumph in overtime during their first visit to College Station three years ago.
Kentucky coach John Calipari hopes his squad can keep the unbeaten streak alive when they take on the Aggies in a 6:30 p.m. contest Saturday.
“It was a war (last year), which, to be honest, we were lucky to get it to the first overtime,” Calipari said. “It’s a great arena. Billy (Kennedy) is doing a great job with his team. Like I said, they’ve hit a little skid here. But they beat Iowa State, you know how good they are. They’ve lost some close games and I expect that they’ll be ready for us when we come through.”
Just like all of Kentucky’s road encounters, Calipari is expecting a hyped and rowdy crowd at tipoff. The game also is part of ESPN College GameDay, which will televise a segment from 10-11 a.m. Saturday morning ahead of the anticipated showdown between the two conference rivals.
“It’s going to be a big game and I would expect one of their best outings,” Calipari said.
Since its last road loss at Tennessee on Feb. 2, the Wildcats (20-6, 10-3) have won four straight games and are in sole possession of first place in the conference standings.
The Wildcats are coming off an 80-70 victory over Tennessee Thursday night and will look to emulate the same success it produced on a Thursday-Saturday turnaround earlier this season with wins conference wins over Arkansas and Vanderbilt.
Texas A&M entered the SEC as one of the surprise teams in the league, but hit a lull this month and have lost five of their past seven games, dropping four of those on the road.
Despite the recent lack of success, Calipari doesn’t expect anything to come easy against the Aggies.
“They’ve struggled some, but everybody has,” the Kentucky coach said. “We’re all in the same boat. You have six teams that are right there to have a chance to play postseason and we’ve all struggled. At one point in the season or another, we’ve all struggled. We have five games left and so do they. It should be a terrific basketball game.”
Scouting Texas A&M
Like the Wildcats, the Aggies (19-7, 8-5) have been nearly flawless at home and own a 14-1 mark in games played at Reed Arena this season.
Texas A&M snapped a four-game losing streak with a 71-56 win over Ole Miss earlier this week. Danuel House and Jalen Jones lead the Aggies in scoring (15.6 points per game), while center Tyler Davis also averages double figures with 10.8 ppg.
“They have a great post game,” Calipari said. “They have guards that are creative and make plays. Obviously (Danuel) House can go for 40. They have other guys that come off the bench and shoot the ball well. (Alex) Caruso is one of the best passers you will ever see. He tries to steal every ball so you have to be careful. You can’t just throw a lazy pass because that’s a layup. They get into transition and they run it very good. They throw it ahead and just put their heads down and go to that basket.”
Injury update
Calipari expects Derek Willis to play Saturday, but isn’t sure about Marcus Lee, who missed the second half of Kentucky’s win over Tennessee Thursday night because of tightness in his back. Senior Alex Poythress remains out with a right knee injury.
Game tracker: Kentucky at Texas A&M, Saturday, 6:30 p.m. 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