COLUMN: Patience is Not Guaranteed to Yield Positive Results for Kentucky Basketball
Kentucky coach John Calipari had his glass half-full hat on when speaking after a Wildcats win on Wednesday night.
Along with his mindset came some coach speak greatest hits — praising the way his team closed out down the stretch, preaching patience, yada yada yada:
"We had to play to win the game at the end."
"We ran clock, ran clock, ran clock, posted the ball, foul, two-point, they don't have enough time now to catch up."
"We're still a work in progress, and I would tell everybody, just be patient."
Now you might ask yourself, what kind of gritty opposition pushed the Cats down the stretch last night, forcing some more of that gut-wrenching grinder ball that the 2022-23 edition of Kentucky has become known for through the first two months of the season?
That would be the 2-8 Florida A&M Rattlers, of course!
You know, the pride of the SWAC, who's currently rated as one of the 10 worst teams in the nation in the eyes of KenPom. The team who entered Rupp Arena averaging barely over 55 points-per-game and was statistically one of the worst shooting teams in Division I.
Kentucky left with an 88-68 win, but it was far closer than the scoreline would suggest.
Coach Robert McCullum's team fought hard for 40 minutes, even trimming UK's lead down to seven points with less than six minutes to go, thanks to an 11-0 run and the far-too-common Wildcat scoring drought.
Calipari called FAMU's season-high scoring night inspiring. McCullum labeled it as offensive execution.
"We didn't defend today like we've been defending. It's crazy," Calipari said perplexed. "I mean, the one thing that we could rely on is that we would really, really guard. Well, they beat us on the bounce, they beat us shooting threes, they beat us offensive rebounding. We just had a little bit more than them."
The blue blood had just a "little bit more" than the program that just scored a measly 58 points against Edward Waters — a Division II school — just over a week ago.
A team compiled of transfers from lower-level colleges forced the mighty Wildcats to slow the game down, the same game where they entered as 37.5-point favorites.
That is worrisome for the remainder of the season. Games such as Wednesday's are categorized as "tune-ups" for a reason, right?
CJ Fredrick tuned-up his jumper, sure. Cason Wallace tuned-up his offensive game and should get ready to tune-up for the NBA Draft. But the team as a whole? Nope. It needs about four-or-five more tune-ups to try and brace for conference play.
That might feel like an okay thing to say in the first couple weeks of the season, but we're now just a couple of days away from Christmas, and Calipari is still pumping those patience brakes.
Maybe those brakes are what need the tune-up, because the vehicle that's driving Kentucky's season is currently going nowhere, and it sure isn't going to get to its destination by March.
SEC play is here. The Cats will have a nice six-day break before taking on the 10-win Missouri Tigers inside Mizzou Arena in Columbia on Dec. 28.
Calipari isn't panicked and he is't budging...but should he be? Wednesday night's performance says so.
More on the victory over Florida A&M here.
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