Mizzou hosts Kentucky with chance to improve to .500 in SEC play
Kassius Robertson is Mizzou's leading scorer with 16.0 points per game this season.
No. 21 Kentucky will be looking for its fourth consecutive win on Saturday in an SEC game at Missouri.
The coaches just hope it's not in the same fashion as the last two victories.
"We don't want to constantly dig ourselves holes, especially against the good teams that we've played," said assistant Tony Barbee, filling in for coach John Calipari, who has been ill.
On Tuesday, Kentucky rallied from a 14-point second-half deficit to defeat Vanderbilt 83-81 in overtime. Before that, Kentucky trailed West Virginia by 17 points with 17 minutes to play last Saturday and rallied to win 83-76 in Morgantown, W.Va.
"We are thankful we won the game, but the coaching staff's not happy because we're trying to trend in a direction," assistant coach Kenny Payne said.
"We're trying to build this team up to play a certain way to be ready for SEC Tournament play, to be ready for an NCAA run and to be honest with you, not the way we played that first half -- tentative, not aggressive, not communicating on defense. Defensive lapses, you're going to get beat if you're playing tournament basketball like that."
The plus side is that Kentucky, which starts five freshmen, did win those games.
"The one thing you've got to say is we like the resilience of this team," Barbee said. "They don't hang their heads when they get down and they collectively fight together to get back in the game. Now we've got to figure out how we bottle that up and get us to start the game that way."
Payne said, "I would like for us as a team -- and I'm sure Cal's the same -- to play those last five or six minutes, play the game like that and let's see how good we are. If we can figure that out, man, we're going to be tough to beat."
The next test for Kentucky (17-5, 6-3 SEC) is Missouri (14-8, 4-5), which is coming off a surprising 69-60 win at Alabama on Wednesday.
"They're one of the most talented teams in this league. Don't let their record fool you," Barbee said. "They've had some great wins. Out of conference they've had some great wins.
"In conference, going to Alabama and winning. Beating Tennessee, beating Georgia, beating South Carolina. I mean, this team is as good top to bottom as any team in this league and they present a lot of different challenges for us."
Missouri's win at Alabama snapped a three-game losing streak.
"I think that could have been the start of a really bad skid," Missouri guard Kassius Robertson said. "We put an end to it."
Forward Jontay Porter added, "This was the most motivated we've been thus far. From here on out, we hope to come out with the same motivation."
This is Cuonzo Martin's first season at Missouri, but the coach spent three years at Tennessee from 2012 to 2014.
"We've all been coaching against his teams forever," said Barbee, a former Auburn head coach. "They all have one very persistent trait and that's how tough they play. How tough physically, how tough they are mentally.
"They're not going to beat themselves. They're going to try to beat you up physically. That's what you saw at Tennessee with his teams, and that's what you see at Missouri with his teams."
Missouri is led by Robertson, a graduate transfer, at 16.0 points per game. He has topped 20 points the last three games. Next comes senior forward Jordan Barnett at 14.0 and junior forward Kevin Puryear at 9.0.
Kentucky is led by forward Kevin Knox at 15.6 points per game. Next comes guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander at 12.6, guard Hamidou Diallo at 12.2, forward PJ Washington at 10.6 and guard Quade Green at 9.8. All are freshmen.
