Wednesday, February 24, 1999
UK seeks breaks, not breakdowns
Three seniors play in final home game
The Associated Press
LEXINGTON, Ky. — If No.13 Kentucky is to go far in postseason play this year, coach Tubby Smith knows his team will have to start getting the little breaks.
“We've got the killer instinct. We just haven't been able to finalize,” Smith said Tuesday.
He said the closing seconds of Saturday's loss to Arkansas were typical of this year's team, which has not enjoyed the same end-of-game luck as last year's “Comeback 'Cats.”
“The ball was falling for us last year in a lot of those close games,” Smith said. “Even against Arkansas we had two or three chances to tie it up late and we weren't able to make those clutch plays.”
The problem was best symbolized in the closing seconds of that game, as the Wildcats, with the ball, tried to make up a four-point deficit. Instead, they watched the ball get caught on the back of the rim while seconds ticked away.
The resulting 74-70 loss makes tonight's home game against Vanderbilt (13-13, 4-10 Southeastern Conference) crucial to rebuilding the Wildcats' confidence.
Point guard Wayne Turner agreed, saying the last thing the Wildcats need is to let the Arkansas loss get them down.
“Even though we've lost seven games, we've still got a chance to be a contender this year,” Turner said.
If Kentucky (21-7, 10-4) is to win its third national title in four years, Turner said, he and the team's two other seniors, Scott Padgett and Heshimu Evans will have to provide the necessary leadership.
“I think it's all there,” Turner said. “It's a matter of duplicating what we do in practice into the game.”
Of the three seniors, Turner has followed the most straightforward path in his Kentucky career. A reserve on Rick Pitino's 1996 championship squad, the guard became the Wildcats' floor leader for the runs to the 1997 title game and the 1998 championship.
If the Wildcats can reach the national semifinals again this season, he will become the first player since Duke's Christian Laettner to play in four straight Final Fours. And by playing in five postseason games, Turner could break Laettner's national collegiate record of 148 games.
Padgett arrived in the fall of 1994 from Louisville's St. Xavier High School and saw limited action during a freshman year in which his academic performance fell apart. After being suspended from school for the entire 1995-96 academic year, Padgett returned to the team in 1996-97 season.
He became a starter when Derek Anderson suffered a season-ending knee injury and has been a mainstay ever since.
Evans, a New York City native, transferred from Manhattan College to Kentucky in 1996 after two standout seasons with the Jaspers. After sitting out a season, “Mu” was one of the nation's top sixth men in 1997-98.
In last year's NCAA tournament, Evans was a crucial sparkplug for the “Comeback 'Cats,” igniting double-digit comebacks against Duke and Utah with two second-half 3-pointers in each game.
Evans has continued to show flashes of that explosiveness as a starter this season, most notably with a 31-point performance in a December showdown against then-No. 2 Maryland.
Evans' most vivid memory of his Wildcat basketball experience is also one of his earliest.
“It was my first individual workout, under Coach Pitino,” Evans said. “I really came in and tried to impress him, and I passed out.”
VANDERBILT at UK
• When: 8 p.m. today
• Where: Rupp Arena (23,000), Lexington, Ky.
• Records: UK 21-7 (10-4 SEC), Vanderbilt 13-13 (4-10)
• TV: Ch. 64
• Radio: WSAI-AM (1530); WNKR-FM (106.5)
BY THE NUMBERS
• 12: Consecutive victories in this series by UK
• 36th, 41st: Respective rankings on the UK career scoring list for Scott Padgett (1,115 points) and Wayne Turner (1,056), who play their last home game today (Heshimu Evans scored 723 of his 1,392 points at Manhattan College)
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