With big comeback, loaded Kentucky team shows it has resiliency, too
STARKVILLE, Miss. -- John Calipari was "a little mean" at halftime.
Those are his words. Not mine.
And I bet a bunch of his words had only four letters.
"But this team has a will to win, and I told them that," Calipari said. "I said, 'If this game's close, your will to win will take over. Just get it close.' "
So Kentucky got it close. With a smothering defense and a roster full of pros playing like pros, the Wildcats got it close. And then they took the lead. And then they won again.
So that makes two road games in 11 days that looked like losses but somehow turned into victories considering the Wildcats were down two possessions with fewer than nine minutes left two Saturdays ago at Vanderbilt and still won 69-63, and considering they were down three possessions with fewer than nine minutes left late Tuesday here at Mississippi State and still won 73-64.
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"I [told my team that] everybody is rooting for us to win this game," Calipari said in an easy-to-identify sarcastic tone. "Let's make them angry."
I'm not sure Calipari's team angered anybody outside of the 10,213 cowbell-loving fans who represented the 19th-largest crowd in the history of Humphrey Coliseum, but I'm certain they impressed a whole bunch of people here and elsewhere. They took Mississippi State's best shot and never flinched. They were down 13 at halftime. They weren't dunking and blocking like they usually dunk and block, and Mississippi State was shooting 48 percent from the field and 50 percent from 3-point range. If you watch much college basketball, you understood this looked and felt like the type of road game a top-ranked team drops.
You know, like when top-ranked Duke lost at unranked Virginia Tech a year ago this week. And when top-ranked Kansas lost at unranked Oklahoma State two years ago this week. And when top-ranked Pittsburgh lost at unranked Providence three years ago this week. Bottom line, in this sport, things like that happen.
But they don't happen to this Kentucky team. Or at least they haven't happened since Christian Watford hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to beat UK more than two months ago at Indiana's Assembly Hall.
The Wildcats are 19-0 since then, and 27-1 overall.
They might lose again.
But when?
No, they aren't unbeatable. But they sure do look that way sometimes. On Monday, Rick Stansbury pointed out he had seen a lot of Kentucky teams in his 14 seasons at Mississippi State, and then suggested this was the best of the bunch. I asked him if his opinion had changed after playing UK.
"I don't have any different opinion," Stansbury said, which was the answer I expected after watching the Wildcats hold his Bulldogs to 23 points on 32 percent shooting in the final 20 minutes while Dee Bost cooled considerably because of Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.
Bost had 16 points in the first half.
That happened with Marquis Teague guarding him.
Bost missed five of the six shots he took in the second half.
That happened after Kidd-Gilchrist accepted Calipari's challenge to guard him.
"I love that challenge right there," Kidd-Gilchrist said. "I love playing defense."
And that's the thing about these Wildcats -- they have a bunch of really talented guys who love to do a bunch of really important things. Kidd-Gilchrist loves to lock up the other team's best player. Anthony Davis loves to block shots and generally freak people out. Darius Miller loves to come off the bench and make big shots when big shots are needed, and if he doesn't love it then he has, at the very least, embraced it, which is the point I'm really trying to make.
When I watch Kentucky, what I see is a lot of future NBA draft picks completely focused on the task at hand. The Wildcats don't seem worried with who starts or who scores or who wins what honors, which is a unique quality for a roster like this.
They seem confident but not cocky.
They have swagger but not to a fault.
They don't get rattled and they don't look young.
And they don't lose road games even great teams ought to lose.
Again, this looked and felt like one of those games. Kentucky was down 13 early and for most of the second half, and you would've been wise to lay money on the Bulldogs when Bost hit a 3-pointer over Davis' outstretched (and really long) arm to give Mississippi State a 60-53 lead with 6:28 remaining.
But you would've also been wrong. So take the field in the Field of 68 if you want, because I know that's the right play statistically. But me? I'm taking Kentucky. And I won't believe the Wildcats will lose again until I see them lose again.
