Dec. 31—It has been quite a few years since the University of Kentucky has gone into its rivalry game with Louisville with as much negative energy as there is right now.
No. 19 UK and the Cardinals tipoff Saturday, New Year’s Eve morning, at 11 a.m. at Rupp Arena. The game will be televised on CBS.
UK fell to 8-4 after a dismal 89-75 loss at Missouri to open play in the tough SEC on Wednesday.
UK has little momentum going right now and a fan base in a boil over its performance in that game and the other high-profile matchups that it has dropped this season. Criticism of John Calipari has been louder over the last couple of days.
The Wildcats and Missouri switched places in the NCAA’s NET rankings after Wednesday, with Mizzou climbing to No. 32 and UK falling to No. 40. UK was the seventh ranked SEC team in the NET as of Thursday.
For comparison sake, Louisville is No. 343 in the NET and has started 2-11.
There’s virtually no chance of an upset by the Cardinals and their first-year coach Kenny Payne. There is nothing but concern for UK and Calipari.
The coach circled back to player performance after losing at Missouri. He talked more about his players having more confidence on Friday.
“We need them to be more mentally sturdy,” Calipari said. “The mentality of this is as big as the other stuff. This is not life and death. It seems that way because you play at Kentucky. Play with courage, play fearless. You’re fearless if it’s us against them.”
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UK has had chemistry concerns most of the season. That issue has shown through on the offensive end when UK has faced the top teams on its pre SEC schedule. UK lost to the three best teams it’s played, Michigan State, Gonzaga and UCLA. UK has also struggled fro m the free throw line in its high-level games.
“We’re still not in synch offensively, we’re not,” Calipari said. “I think there are times when we’re trying to play too fast. How do we control the pace? Now you play the good teams, you’ve got to play where the ball goes from one side to the other.”
UK has had trouble at times making shots from the perimeter, and that’s allowed defenses to surround Oscar Tshiebwe. The 23-point, 19-rebound effort at Missouri marked the fourth contest with at least 22 points and 18 rebounds of Tshiebwe’s career.
“His energy to fight for every single rebound is relentless,” Payne said of Tshiebwe. “Rarely do you see a player who is fighting for low post position, but also fighting for offensive rebounds, screening his defender out so guards can drive and get layups. He’s a force.”
Kentucky leads the overall series by 20 games, but U of L has won the last two and the teams haven’t met since Dec. 26, 2020 at Freedom Hall. The teams didn’t play last season for the first time since 1982 due to COVID-19 issues within the Cardinal program.
Payne spent 10 seasons as an assistant coach and later associate head coach at Kentucky from 2010-20 under Calipari. The Wildcats went a combined 295-73 during Payne’s time with the program, reaching six NCAA Elite Eights and four Final Fours, and claiming the 2012 national championship. Payne helped coach 36 NBA Draft picks while at Kentucky, including 23 lottery picks and two No. 1 selections (Anthony Davis and Karl Anthony-Towns).
The Cardinals have a 2-game losing streak and their only wins have come over Western Kentucky University, which No. 136 in KenPom, and Florida A&M, which checks in at No. 357 in KenPom.
Over the last four games, senior guard El Ellis has averaged 20.5 points, 6.3 assists and 3.0 rebounds while making 9 of 21 3-pointers. He set career highs against Western Kentucky with 30 points and 10 assists. Ellis is the first Cardinal to hit those marks since current team video coordinator Reece Gaines did it against TCU on March 6, 2002.