Kentucky turns its sights to No. 1 Kansas, Champions Classic

Antonio Reeves‘ phone is ringing off the hook ahead of his homecoming matchup, the Kentucky Wildcats set to take on the Kansas Jayhawks in the Champions Classic in Chicago. Friends and family are calling every day hoping the fifth-year senior has found another ticket or two lying around the Joe Craft Center.

“Like, no. All of my teammates have used all of their tickets up,” Reeves said following the team’s 81-61 win over Texas A&M-Commerce. “I don’t have any more tickets.”

He says he gets four, reserved for immediate family members. And they’ll be in attendance for a game he admits is a big one, especially considering it’s his last shot to play in his hometown of Chicago. And to do it against the No. 1 team in the country? You really can’t beat it.

“It means a lot to me because I’m a senior, I only get to play there one time,” Reeves said. “It’s definitely a big day for me, so I’m going to go out there and give it all I’ve got.”

The Wildcats will take on the Jayhawks on Tuesday, Nov. 14 at 9:30 p.m. ET, No. 1 vs. No. 2 on college basketball’s all-time wins list. Kentucky’s first real test of the season, the ultimate measuring stick to figure out just what the Wildcats have in this freshman-heavy group — especially down three 7-footers.

On the surface, it’s a wildly important matchup for the program, no matter the depth concerns this team is currently facing. John Calipari knows no one in the sport will be feeling bad for his bunch when the ball is tipped in the United Center — that game will be under a microscope either way. And though he hasn’t started watching film on the Jayhawks quite yet, he knows the next few days will be hectic getting ready.

“They are good. Are they still number one in the country? So we are playing a number one team in the country,” Calipari said. “We could be shorthanded. Should we play the game anyway? Yeah, let’s play it. I mean, if you are shorthanded, you are shorthanded. Like, do you think anybody’s feeling sorry for us? Oh, no. They are happy. They hope two more guys get hurt. So we know how good they are.

“We have played them. We’ve played them here, we’ve played them at Kansas, we’ve played them in different — this event. We get them, they get us. It’s always that kind of competitiveness. But we will see how good they are and where we are with a bunch of young guys at this point. My guess is, he has got a veteran kind of team, older. We’ll see.”

Kentucky’s final tune-up ahead of the matchup did not necessarily go as planned. A 20-point win, sure, but it was a game the Wildcats found themselves down as many as 13 in the first half. Defense was an issue, Calipari voicing his displeasure in his guards’ ability — or effort, rather — to stay in front of ball-handlers on the perimeter. He added that the team may have been a bit too conservative with the ball, turning it over just three times on the night — “I’m wondering if we’re not being aggressive enough.”

Certainly not a flawless effort with plenty to work on ahead of the matchup in Chicago.

“Just making adjustments, that’s what practice is for,” DJ Wagner said after the win. “We’re going to get back in the lab and we’re just going to work on, just communicating and small things like that. So, we’re going to get right back to practice and work on it.”

“Really excited, but we can’t really focus on that right now. We just have to get back in the gym tomorrow and get better,” Justin Edwards added. “There is always something to get better at.”

The freshmen took over Kentucky’s season-opening victory vs. New Mexico State, four finishing as the team’s top scorers. Then adversity hit in game two, the Wildcats finding themselves down by double digits midway through the first half.

What will happen when the newcomers have the lights of college basketball’s biggest and brightest stage, the Champions Classic, shining down? It’s Reeves’ job, along with fellow fifth-year senior Tre Mitchell, to make sure that moment won’t be too big for them.

“I feel like me and Tre will definitely have a talk with them, just to ease them a little bit. That atmosphere does get crazy,” Reeves said. “If I see them in the game and they’re panicking or anything, I’ll just say, ‘Ay, yo, it’s going to be cool.’ Just being a veteran presence.”

Atmosphere aside, Wagner is ready to simply watch film and get back to practice, continue taking things “game by game, one game by one game.” The Wildcats won games one and two, but now it’s about three.

He believes they’ll be ready to rise to the occasion.

“It’s on to the next. Now we’re focused on the next game,” he said. “We’re excited, all excited. I feel like we are all confident to play in a game like that, playing in that atmosphere. We’ve put a lot of work in, but there is more work to put in for us. Once we get back to practice, get back to the lab, we’re going to be ready for sure.”

Reeves believes this team is capable of doing “really big things,” adding that “these freshmen are ready” for the moment in Chicago. But they can’t build it up to be something more than it is. When push comes to shove, it’s just another early-season matchup, one that will likely do little to change the trajectory of the year.

Like any other game, the Kentucky Wildcats are just going to go out there and win it, getting revenge for how things unfolded last season in the Jayhawks’ 77-68 win in Lexington.

“It’s definitely just a game at the end of the day — they beat us last year and we’re trying to beat them this year. That’s all there is to it,” Reeves said. “We’re going out there and trying to win that game.”