Exhausting Minutes for Starters and Physicality of No. 10 Tennessee Project Wind-Sucking Experience for Kentucky

Exhausting Minutes for Starters and Physicality of No. 10 Tennessee Project Wind-Sucking Experience for Kentucky

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Humphrey Coliseum was hot on Wednesday night. 

Like, hot, hot. Just ask freshman guard Cason Wallace. 

"Man, that was a long game," he told reporters on Friday. "It was pretty hot in there, sweating a lot, got to drink a lot of fluids through games like that, I feel like we fought hard and came out of a battle. A little beat up, but I made it through."

"That was insane. Like, I don't think I'll sweat that much all year." 

I — an out-of-shape sports reporter who mashes chicken fingers and diet coke as a hobby — tend to agree with the future NBA draft pick. I also don't know that i'll sweat that much again. 

The added temperature in Starkville on Wednesday night only highlighted the fact that the Wildcats were shorthanded for the third game in a row. Point guard Sahvir Wheeler (ankle) missed his third-straight game, while shooting guard CJ Fredrick (ribs) missed his second. 

A lack of guards meant a high number of minutes for those available. It was a bit of a shock in the Wildcats' loss to Georgia last weekend, as notated by shooting guard Antonio Reeves — who played all 40 minutes in the loss — after the fact.

"I feel like my legs were kind of getting tired," he said. "Playing 40 minutes is tough for anybody, to be honest. I think that me being out there too much, it got a toll on my legs."

Lucky for Reeves and the Cats, they had an extra day off, as their matchup against Mississippi State came on Wednesday, not Tuesday. It was the first Wednesday SEC game for UK since the conference-opener against Missouri on Dec. 28, in fact. 

With Fredrick still out, it was Reeves that remained in the starting lineup, subsequently playing 38 minutes in Kentucky's 71-68 win over Miss State, not the entire 40. He, along with the other four starters — Wallace, Chris Livingston, Jacob Toppin and Oscar Tshiebwe — played at least 32 minutes in the tiresome victory.

"Playing that many minutes, it's a tough thing to do sometimes. Sometimes I even just got to sit out for a couple of minutes," Reeves said with a smile. 

It's a heavy workload for anybody, but those sort of minutes tack on to the season-long stamina. It makes a game even longer for somebody like Wallace, who finished the game with four points on 1-13 shooting. 

Instead of spacing out, however, the freshman stayed locked in and led the game with a season-high 11 assists, keeping the offense from wilting past the point of no return as the Bulldogs staged a second-half comeback. 

"Just keep playing," Wallace said when asked about fighting through a rough shooting night. "They knew that I was finding them, they were making shots, so I wasn't too down about missing shots. I knew that I was gonna find them and they were gonna knock them down."

As Wallace, his teammates and even coach John Calipari all stood soaked, they gritted their teeth and salvaged a Quad 1 win, just their second of the season, and one that could catapult the Cats to a strong finish to the regular season. 

Calipari preached a "refuse to lose" mentality, leading to the exhausting bout feeling all the more satisfying for the players once they came out on top.

"There's a lot of self talk going on just telling myself you got to fight through it, got to keep going ... just a lot of self talk and being mentally strong," Wallace said.

"I'm not the only one playing a lot of minutes. There's a lot of people playing 30 plus minutes so I can't really make an excuse for myself that I have to play harder than everybody else because they're playing as hard as they can as well. So, I mean, I just got to go out there and play as hard as I can."

That hard play will attempt to serve as a momentum builder for this weekend's bout against the No. 10 Tennessee Volunteers. 

After a stretch of three losses in four games — two of which came on buzzer-beaters — coach Rick Barnes' team got right in a big way, stomping over No. 1 Alabama in Knoxville for a 68-59 win. 

With five games left in the regular season, the Vols are vying for at least a two-seed in the NCAA Tournament. The road to achieving that goal now goes through Lexington. As if the rivalry doesn't incentivize things enough, it'll also serve as a revenge game for UT. 

Kentucky was considered dead and gone after losing to South Carolina at home on Jan. 10, but it came back stronger than ever just four days later, stunning the Vols inside Thompson-Boling Arena, 63-56. It was a physical outing that saw the Cats dominate the rebound battle, snatching 43 boards compared to UT's 23. 

Barnes noted that as a major improvement his team needs to make when speaking with reporters on Friday:

"They just absolutely annihilated us on the glass. I think doubled us up. The fact is, we had a lot of blown coverages. They played really good basketball. But we’ve got to do a better job on the boards. Certainly we’ve got to do a better job with our scouting report." 

As if Tennessee didn't play physical enough, the emphasis on crashing the glass will be turned up to 11, making for another big clash in the paint. Unfortunately for the Vols, that may have to come without a pair of important forwards. 

Leading rebounder Josiah-Jordan James and freshman forward Julian Phillips are both considered "game-time decisions," per Barnes. The pair combine for 18.5 points and 10.1 rebounds-per-game. 

As for the Cats, there has been no update on the status of Wheeler or Fredrick. Wheeler had a boot on his right foot in Starkville on Wednesday. 

Playing physical with a shorthanded roster is only asking for sucking wind and foul trouble. Both of those things are trending towards the "likely" category for the afternoon battle in the Bluegrass. 

Tipoff between Kentucky and Tennessee is set for 1 p.m. EST and will air on CBS.

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