4-Point Play: It's time for Cats vs. Hogs at Bud Walton Arena

It’s about that time, folks. We’re past the South Carolina loss in Columbia and looking ahead to Kentucky‘s next challenge on the road — a rivalry matchup at Arkansas.

These Razorbacks aren’t like most, that much is clear. To say they’re sputtering would be an understatement. Sitting at 10-9 on the year and 1-5 in the SEC, they don’t score (No. 132), don’t defend (No. 309) and don’t rebound (No. 279). Eric Musselman put together a roster of 10 transfers — seven being new additions — and the group just hasn’t meshed.

But it’s still Cats vs. Hogs at Bud Walton Arena, mandatory viewing for the college basketball world. We’re certainly not going to apologize for being excited about it.

One more sleep ’til game day. How about a 4-Point Play to get us ready?

Kentucky’s first game at full strength?

It sounds hard to believe, but the Cats haven’t played a single game with their complete roster all season long. Not once. In fact, they’ve only had two matchups at full strength before Zvonimir Ivisic was freed: UNC and Louisville. And it’s hard to say Kentucky was complete even then considering Ugonna Onyenso was still working his way up to game speed in his debut against the Tar Heels and Adou Thiero went down with his back injury against the Cardinals. A piece has been absent or limited here or there all season.

That is expected to change Saturday as Thiero makes his return to the floor after missing seven games. Calipari said the sophomore forward would play “if he practices two days” ahead of the matchup in Fayetteville on Thursday and Friday. Early returns are positive and there is growing optimism Kentucky will have all scholarship players available at Arkansas.

What does Thiero bring to the table? Well, basically everything the Cats are missing right now: defense, rebounding and physicality. He’s fourth on the team in defensive rating (102.9), third in rebounds per 100 possessions (13.1) and — well, he’s 6-8, 222 pounds. He gets in there and wreaks havoc on both ends like a bull in a china shop, something this roster simply doesn’t have anywhere else. It’s not hyperbole to say he’s the team’s X factor in that regard.

He’s been sorely missed, but not much (or any) longer.

Winning on the road ain’t easy…

It’s become easy to hyperfocus on Kentucky’s 2-2 start in true road games, the pair of losses exposing the Cats in two glaring ways — defense (Texas A&M) and physicality (South Carolina). The latter was the real head-scratcher, though. For the first time, this team was unable to get whatever it wanted on one end while continuing to fail coming up with stops on the other. That’s how you get a 17-point road loss, teams tripping over themselves to steal the blueprint Lamont Paris drew up and executed to perfection.

But here’s the thing: Kentucky isn’t some national outlier and the Cats’ recent road struggles aren’t exclusive to this group. Don’t believe me? Ask the other 17 top-10 teams who have combined for 25 total losses to unranked teams on the road this season.

Yeah. Really.

KSR’s Brandon Ramsey — a basketball wizard, might I add — came up with the stat, one guaranteed to make you fall out of your seat.

AP Top 10 teams (18 in total) are now 17-27 on the year in true road games against unranked competition, good for a winning percentage of 38.6%.

How does that compare to years past?

• 2022-23: 59.8%
• 2021-22: 61.2%
• 2020-21: 58.9%
• 2019-20: 66.1%
• 2018-19: 73.3%

Of that group, just four teams have winning records as top-10 teams taking on unranked opponents on the road: North Carolina (3-0), UConn (3-1), Purdue (3-2) and Tennessee (2-1). Kentucky (2-2) and Kansas (2-2) are the only teams at .500.

Losing stinks and the Cats have some things to figure out, but so does the rest of college basketball.

Maybe the sky isn’t falling after all?

… but you still have to find ways to win

The numbers help paint the bigger picture, but they’re not excuses. Kentucky has to learn to win those games in those environments, and the players know that. They figure that out pretty quickly in practices after losses, this one no exception.

“Oh yeah, really physical,” Aaron Bradshaw said of Thursday’s practice. “It’s like a teaching moment after that loss, understanding how to play and what to expect. Just play hard, give it your all, do all of the dirty work.”

“Practice after a loss is never easy. Everybody is on edge, everybody wants to make those quick fixes that we can and get ready for what’s next,” Tre Mitchell added. “We were definitely locked in yesterday, a lot of competing and going at each other. I think we’re ready for what’s to come.”

As Coach Cal promised, physicality was the team’s top priority leaving Columbia. “I saw men and I saw boys,” he said following the loss. The Cats have to learn to throw the first punch and keep swinging through the final buzzer.

“We’ve got to start off hot, be the aggressors instead of being pushed around,” Bradshaw said. “We’ve got to be the ones pushing. If we do that, we’ll get the dub.”

“You just have to be physical back, set the tone early and keep that tone,” Mitchell added. “There are going to be teams that play absolutely out of their minds against us, we’ve seen it the entire year. I really don’t think that’s going to change. It’s a matter of letting those people know we’re here for 40 minutes, we’re going to be just as physical as we need to be and won’t back down.

“… It is about understanding the level of physicality we need everywhere we go, bringing that fight and competitive edge in all situations, no matter what the environment is like. … It’s not going to be easy anywhere we go.

Arkansas could be without its two best players

The Razorbacks were without Tramon Mark, the team’s leading scorer, in the loss at Ole Miss due to migraines. And then their leading rebounder, Trevon Brazile, missed the second half with knee soreness.

That led to Musselman playing 12 different Hogs in Oxford, ten playing at least ten minutes. For a team already out of whack, that certainly did them no favors.

Should we expect Mark and Brazile back with Kentucky in town? Muss couldn’t confirm either way.

“I would assume that Tramon should be getting better each day with the migraine,” he said. That’s usually the history of how migraines go but they’re also very, very unpredictable. … And then with TB, he would like to play for sure but he’s got some soreness. There are a couple of different thought processes. Does he rest? Does he see how it feels before tip? I would say as of this moment, at best a game-time decision.”

Arkansas needs both players in the lineup. Kentucky wouldn’t mind if they weren’t.