In most years, the opposing teams set to face the Kentucky men’s basketball team face the match with a sense of anxiety and, at times, fear. Teams facing teams like 2009-10, 2011-12, 2014-15 and 2016-17 from Kentucky came in with a mentality with their backs to the wall, nothing to lose, simply hoping for the best.
“Every game we play now is someone’s Super Bowl,” said Calipari in 2016, among countless other occasions.
Amid the team’s 5-10 start to the 2020-21 season, however, that mindset has changed. The UK is now the underdog team desperate for a win in hopes of saving the mess of a season.
During the Missouri pre-Kentucky press conference, assistant coach Marco Harris-Stevens told reporters that the two recent challengers from 18th place Tigers, Auburn and TCU, posed greater threats in the backcourt than the UK brings to the table. table.
“We are proud of the defense. … To get nothing out of Kentucky, Auburn and TCU have very good guards, ”said Harris-Stevens. “I’m not saying that Kentucky doesn’t have very good guards, but I don’t think they have guards that can move like those guys. We just have to play defense, man. The ball defense has to be better, and I think it will be. “
Auburn and TCU really hurt Mizzou with ball screens in the last two games. When asked about this, assistant coach Marco Harris-Stevens said the following about Kentucky guards:
“I don’t think they have guards that can move like those guys did”
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Granted, Auburn is led by freshman star Sharife Cooper, who currently averages 21.0 points, 8.3 assists, 4.8 rebounds and 1.0 steals per dispute for the Tigers, while TCU’s starting guard – RJ Nembhard and Mike Miles – have a combined average of 31.2 points, 8.0 rebounds and 7.1 assists per contest. No one in the Kentucky squad averages more than 12.1 points per game (Brandon Boston Jr.).
Still, it is not typical for Kentucky to be sitting across the aisle for a change, something that confused the Tigers during preparation for this midweek fight.
“I’m not a Kentucky player, but looking from the outside, I would just say the team’s camaraderie … you could say that previous Kentucky teams were disciplined and more experienced or just more prisoners,” Missouri junior guard said Xaiver Pinson. “I think this team is having problems with many different things that I don’t know about.“
With 5 to 10 matches or not, Tigers know they cannot ignore combative Wildcats. Despite current struggles, they see individual talent aligning the list, talent that they see being able to bring everything together at some point.
“We just have to go in and not take this game lightly because of their track record, because of how they started the season,” said Pinson.
“We have already talked about this and understand that they have athletes, players and everything needed to win games,” added Missouri playmaker Dru Smith. “They have already won four games at the conference, so we are not looking at the record. We are preparing for who they are, their employees, just as we do with everyone, of course. … We cannot look beyond anyone.“
Missouri is not looking at Wildcats, and UK coach John Calipari is certainly not looking at 18th Tigers.
“I mean, we have a tough, tough game in Missouri. Difficult, ”said Calipari. “They are physical. They keep it. They have a great man who is a moose. Your guard game is good. It’s even better. They brought back all these guys from last year’s team that we fought with. So, it’s going to be a very, very difficult game. ”
The game between the Wildcats and the Tigers will begin at 7 pm Eastern Time on ESPN2.