National : Kentucky wins 10 of last 12 in case for NCAA Tournament
The losses kept coming. The critics were quick to point out the failures of the new coach. At the beginning of the season, nothing went right for the Kentucky men’s basketball team.
The Wildcats, one of the most storied programs in the history of college basketball, had gone from a national contender to one of the biggest disappointments in the country early in the season with a 6-7 record. NCAA Tournament hopes were sliding away quickly, and the season looked bleak.
But Kentucky head coach Billy Gillispie had a simple message for his team.
‘Coach always believed in us and told us if we continue to work hard each and every day and improve, we were going to be right where we want to be come SEC time,’ senior Ramel Bradley said. ‘Sure enough, he was right, and we’ve been rolling.’
Kentucky has rallied to win 10 of its last 12 games and has saved its best basketball for the latter part of a tumultuous season.
The Wildcats, who once seemed to be lifeless for the NCAA Tournament, have rallied from the slow start and put themselves back on the bubble with the run to end the season and 11 Southeastern Conference wins.
‘We’re peaking at the point in the season where we need to,’ Bradley said. ‘Coach always told us that this is when we would peak, and we are and I think it’s going to play a very big factor in our tournament play if we make it.’
Kentucky came into the season as No. 20, but that ranking quickly disappeared with a shocking, 84-68, loss to Gardner-Webb in the 2K Sports College Hoop Classic.
The Wildcats won their next three games but then hit a brick wall. North Carolina, Indiana, Alabama-Birmingham and Houston all beat Kentucky consecutively, and San Diego and Louisville would also become non-conference losses for the team. Kentucky started with a paltry 6-7 non-conference record, not usually a formula to make the NCAA Tournament.
‘The expectations were very high,’ Bradley said. ‘This was going to be our year to show we are on of the elite teams in the country, and it didn’t happen early on for us.’
But the season doesn’t end after non-conference play. Kentucky started SEC play with an impressive, 79-73, victory over then-No. 13 Vanderbilt before dropping its next two games. The team now sits at 11-4 in conference, only losing to Vanderbilt and then-No. 1 Tennessee since the two-game skid.
‘Basketball is not how you start, it’s how you finish,’ Bradley said. ‘We’ve been playing pretty good toward the end and making a strong push, and that’s when you need to be gain steam, going into the post-season and that’s what we’ve been doing. Hopefully we can make a showing right now.’
Bradley credits the team’s improved play to Gillispie, who was named the head coach after Tubby Smith left for Minnesota. Gillispie had previously coached at Texas A&M, leading it to last year’s Sweet 16.
Bradley said the team adopted its coach’s mentality including his toughness and will to compete on every single possession. He said Gillispie wants the team to play smart basketball and the team has really taken on its coach’s mentality and is playing like the coach wants them to play every game.
Gillispie said the team becoming healthier was a factor, pointing to the return of sophomore guard Derrick Jasper as helpful. The team is 11-5 with him back.
‘Derrick Jasper has made such a difference for our team,’ Gillispie said. ‘He means so much to us offensively, defensively, just gives us another body. … I knew that we could improve greatly once Derek had been able to get out there.’
The Wildcats, though, are still not at 100 percent as the team is without sophomore guard Jodie Meeks and recently lost freshman sensation Patrick Patterson to a stress fracture in his ankle.
Through all the injuries and turmoil of the season, Kentucky has put itself in a situation for a possible at-large bid for the NCAA Tournament, something that seemed distant at the beginning of the season.
Ten conference wins is usually a good indicator of a team making the post-season, but Syracuse showed last year that it’s not always the case.
Mississippi State head coach Rick Stansbury, though, thinks 10 conference wins in the SEC should be enough to get a team into the dance.
‘It’s hard for me to say any team that wins 10 league games in this league doesn’t deserve an NCAA opportunity because we understand how good this league is from top to bottom; (there are) no easy games,’ Stansbury said.
Will the Wildcats end up in the tournament? If they are unable to win the SEC, the world will just have to wait until March 16 to see. But Bradley had no doubts about whether Kentucky will be dancing.
‘I would say that the teams that should be in the tournament are the best going into postseason play,’ Bradley said. ‘Right now, I feel like there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that we are one of those teams.’
Three teams are currently winless in league play heading into the final games of the season, and one team finished the season winless.
Oregon State is 0-16 in the Pacific-10 and hosts Arizona and Arizona State in its last two games, both NCAA tournament candidates.
Colorado State is 0-15 in the Mountain West and has one home game left against New Mexico, which is 23-7.
Rounding out the list of those winless in conference play is Rice, who is 0-14 in Conference USA. There is hope for the Owls, though, as they close the season against East Carolina and SMU, who have a combined seven conference wins.
The New Jersey Institute of Technology went 0-29 on the season.
No. 1 North Carolina at No. 6 Duke
Saturday, ESPN, 9 p.m.
If there is one college rivalry that can mirror the level of the Yankees and Red Sox feud, it’s the battle of Tobacco Road between UNC and Duke.
This game has everything that college basketball enthusiasts want in a rivalry. Great coaches? Check. Great players? Check. Intensity on every possession? Check. Fans that can’t stand to lose to the other team? Check.
This year’s game is set to determine the top seed for the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, so the magnitude is even bigger.
Duke dominated UNC in its building earlier this year. With all the implications of the game, don’t be surprised if it pulls it out in Cameron Indoor and sweep the rivals – at least until the ACC Tournament.
Duke 84, UNC 76
Published on March 5, 2008 at 12:00 pm
