Kentucky happy to get mojo back, move past "DEFCON-1" week

The only thing worse than the week the Kentucky Basketball team was having when it came to Nashville is what would have happened if the Cats had lost to Vanderbilt last night. Thankfully, that did not happen; far from it, in fact. The Cats sprinted past Vanderbilt out of the gates, leading wire-to-wire in a feel-good 109-77 romp.

Antonio Reeves was one of the catalysts of Kentucky’s hot start, combining with Rob Dillingham for 29 points, including seven threes, in the first half. Kentucky took a 54-38 lead into the locker room and outscored Vanderbilt 55-39 in the second half.

“We were just ready to go,” Reeves told reporters afterward. “The coaches told [John Calipari] we had a great warmup. All the guys were just gelled and connected like brothers and we went out there and gave it all we’ve got, 100% So that’s why we started so good.”

Justin Edwards, who had a breakout game of his own with a career-high 17 points, cited Kentucky’s preparation for their strong start.

“Practice-wise, the last two practices we have were good leading up to this game so that played a big part in the way we started.”

While the level of competition must be taken into consideration — in the KenPom ratings, Vanderbilt (No. 201) is the worst team Kentucky’s faced since Illinois State (No. 207) — simply winning after back-to-back losses at Rupp Arena is a step in the right direction. Winning by 32 while you’re down two starters (DJ Wagner and Tre Mitchell) is really nice after watching the Cats lose three of the last four.

“Just getting our mojo back coming off two losses,” Reeves said of his takeaway from last night. “[The losing streak] was devastating but we just stayed in the jump, stayed focused and collected as a group, and just made sure we communicated out there as well. Just try to do as much as we can on defense.”

Reeves said that the team also had to lock in off the court to avoid the backlash after the rough stretch.

“It’s challenging when we lose, you know, just with social media and things like that. We just have to turn it off and stay together as brothers. So, it’s challenging, but we stay focused, read the game plan, and just study what we have to do for the next team. I know we just came out there and gave it all we got.”

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Calipari: BBN is “DEFCON 1 or DEFCON 5; there’s nothing in between”

John Calipari, who has been the subject of most of the fan criticism over the last week, is also encouraging his players to avoid the clutter.

“These guys, I just keep telling them, ‘Don’t buy into any of the stuff. Don’t listen to it. You stick together.’ I said, ‘I’ve done this a long, long time, the ups and downs of this, that’s what it is.’

“At Kentucky, the ups are like, don’t sleep for two days, and the downs are ‘I’m going to kill everybody. Everybody needs to leave.’ That’s what it is. But, if you’re going to coach at Kentucky or if you’re going to play at Kentucky, you better deal with it because it’s not changing, and I’d imagine it’s been that way for 50 years.”

Calipari borrowed an analogy from Tom Leach, who compared the changing mood of the Big Blue Nation to the U.S. military’s states of alert. Coming into the game, BBN was likely at DEFCON 1 (at or ready for nuclear war).

“Tom Leach said [it’s] DEFCON 1 or DEFCON 5; there’s nothing in between,” Calipari said. “And that’s what it is. It doesn’t faze me because I’m not listening or looking. I don’t do social media other than put stuff out. I won’t look at anything because it’s not going to affect me. Like I said, I’m going to have joy, no one will steal my joy because I’ve got a good team and a good bunch of kids and they’re for each other.

“So you’re not stealing my joy. Say I’m the worst in America ever. Okay, I agree, can we move on now? Get on to something serious.”

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