By Ashley Scoby
Special to NKyTribune
In the beginning of any journey, motivation is fresh. At the ending, the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel is peeking out. But in the middle? The middle is always the problem.
And the middle part of Kentucky’s Southeastern Conference schedule will show what this 22-0, No. 1-ranked basketball team is made of.
The real grind of any season comes when a team has already seen huge success (like 22 wins), and when even bigger successes (a national championship) are in the somewhat-distant future. Trap games ensue.
Over a period of 10 days, starting Saturday, Kentucky will play at Florida, at LSU, Georgia (in Rupp) and at Tennessee. That’s about as tough of a stretch as the Wildcats are going to get, at least until post-season play.
Florida has struggled mightily this year. At 12-10, the Gators have dropped basically any chance at a quality non-conference win; they’ve lost to Miami, Georgetown, North Carolina, Kansas, Florida State and Connecticut before conference play even began. And SEC play hasn’t been much better: Florida has lost to Georgia, LSU, Ole Miss and Vanderbilt.
But Gainesville has always been a difficult place to play for Kentucky, including last year, when the Wildcats lost 85-64 at a raucous O’Connell Center.
And Billy Donovan is largely considered one of the best coaches in the league, if not the country, on a year-to-year basis. Nothing comes easily in Gainesville when you’re Kentucky.
Next will come LSU, which has beaten Texas Tech and a top-20 West Virginia team, and is third in conference standings. Baton Rouge will undoubtedly be rowdy as well, as teams always are when Kentucky comes to town.
A game against South Carolina and a road trip to Knoxville, Tenn., will finish out the brutal 10-day stretch. And if Kentucky can come out of that unscathed, then the talk about an undefeated season will reach a crescendo.
To do that, though, Kentucky does have weaknesses (really!) that can be addressed. Post play has to become more consistent. Karl-Anthony Towns has been dominant at times, but has only put two great halves together a couple of times.
Willie Cauley-Stein has not performed at a Willie Cauley-Stein level in recent games. Dakari Johnson has struggled with his inside presence offensively, getting shots blocked several times against Alabama.
The Wildcats’ defensive prowess hasn’t been as intensely suffocating as it was at the beginning of the season, but that could be a product of better competition and lack of focus.
And it would be nice for Kentucky if it got its shooting guards going again: After a ridiculous hot streak through January, Devin Booker has finally cooled down. Aaron Harrison has struggled in the last couple of games, even going 0-4 from the field against Georgia this week.
John Calipari, although ignoring the talk of perfection this season, is still coaching his team towards perfection on a micro level. Every game feels as if Kentucky is down three points with a minute remaining if you watch Calipari on the sideline. He’s jumping around, pulling players out of the game immediately for things like one-handed rebounding, and generally trying to make his guys perform as close to perfection-level basketball as possible.
That kind of effort can serve to expand Kentucky’s margin of error. And that might be exactly what the Wildcats need heading into the next two weeks.
Ashley Scoby is a senior journalism major at the University of Kentucky and a sports writer for KyForward.com, where this story first appeared. She has reported on the Wildcats for wildcathoops.com, vaughtsviews.com and kysportsreport.com as well as for newspapers in Danville and Glasgow. She will join Sports Illustrated magazine as a summer intern in June.