Tennessee coach Rick Barnes has taken note of Kentucky’s recent growth spurt that has propelled the Wildcats to three victories in the past four games.
“I think (John Calipari is) getting more settled with what he wants to do with the rotation, how many guys he wants to play, and honestly, that can change from game to game at times, but I just think this team is starting to kind of get an identity, and his teams have always ended up doing that,” Barnes said.
Barnes added despite a 90-84 loss at Kansas last weekend, Kentucky’s recent improvement will carry the Wildcats a long way in the postseason.
“They will be one of the teams people will really want to watch and a team that nobody’s going to want to deal with as the year keeps going,” he said.
The Wildcats (16-5, 6-2 Southeastern Conference) will look to build on the performance against the seventh-ranked Jayhawks Tuesday night when they take on the Volunteers in Knoxville. Kentucky remained idle at No. 20 in this week’s Associated Press Top 25 poll.
Kentucky junior Dominique Hawkins said the loss to Kansas will prove to be a stepping stone for the Wildcats for the remainder of the regular season. He added the main point of emphasis is learning how to close out games, especially on the road.
“We came in and competed with fight and we learned a lot from that game,” he said. “Our biggest thing is we just have to learn how to win at the end of games.”
The Volunteers (10-11, 3-5) are coming off a 75-63 loss to Texas Christian in the Big 12-SEC Challenge and have lost six of their last nine games. One of those victories was a 78-69 victory over No. 25 South Carolina on Jan. 23 at Thompson-Boling Arena.
“This is a quick (turnaround) and a hard game,” Calipari said. “The games I’ve watched of Tennessee, Rick (Barnes is) doing a terrific job of playing his team the way they got to play to have success. They beat South Carolina pretty handily. They went to Alabama and had them down by as many as 15, 16 (points) and lost at the end of the game. (Their) guard play is solid. They fight like heck, they’re rebounding and they’re really good.”
In addition to getting over the emotional loss at Kansas in such a short period of time, Calipari has been focusing on devising an offense to counter triangle-and-two attacks similar to what the Jayhawks used against the Wildcats down the stretch.
“It kind of put us out of rhythm for a minute,” Calipari said. “I would imagine (Tennessee) will try a lot of different stuff to keep us out of that post position.”
The Kentucky coach also is coming up with a way to give point guard Tyler Ulis more time on the bench during the final five weeks of the regular season. Ulis played all 45 minutes in the loss at Kansas.
“We’re working on that right now trying to come up with a pre-, set-in-stone plan, especially in the first half of how we’re subbing players, know it, coaches know it, here’s what we’re doing,” Calipari said. “It doesn’t matter if they score, here’s how we’re doing this.”
On the flip side, Calipari said Ulis needs to learn when and not to score during certain situations while on the court.
“He has to recognize when they’re collapsing, you’re a facilitator,” Calipari said. “When they’re not collapsing, you’re a scorer. When they then collapse, you’re a facilitator, and that means you don’t take one more dribble. You just give it up.”
Although the atmosphere won’t mirror what the Wildcats encountered in Lawrence, Kansas last week, Hawkins expects a rowdy crowd.
“It’s a hard to place to come in and win,” the junior guard said. “That environment there is crazy. They’ll probably have a sellout crowd and be waiting for us.”
Game tracker: Kentucky at Tennessee, 7 p.m., Tuesday. 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