COLUMBIA, MO. • Kassius Robertson turned a hallway inside Alabama’s Coleman Coliseum into his personal mosh pit seconds after the final buzzer Wednesday night, playfully plowing into every teammate, coach and manager in his path to Missouri’s locker room where the Tigers then let out two weeks of built-up frustration.
Did Mizzou save its season with the 69-60 win over the Crimson Tide, the hottest team in the SEC outside of their in-state rival? It seemed that way as Robertson ran the human gauntlet.
“We knew it was a must-win,” said wise-beyond-his-18-years Jontay Porter after his best game in weeks. “We were on a losing streak and we still have tournament dreams, too.”
Those dreams can inch closer to reality with another victory Saturday against No. 21 Kentucky (17-5, 6-3 Southeastern Conference), a team the Tigers (14-8, 4-5) have never beaten, before or since joining the SEC. This hasn’t been a typically dominant Wildcats team under John Calipari, with losses to two teams Mizzou has defeated (South Carolina, Tennessee), plus Tuesday’s overtime magic act victory against lowly Vanderbilt. Still, it’s Kentucky and it’s Calipari, the coach whose collection of NBA lottery picks rivals only his stash of fine Italian suits.
Which Missouri team will take Norm Stewart Court in what figures to be the most anticipated home game of the season? The team that wilted defensively in three straight losses to Texas A&M, Auburn and Mississippi State? Or the team that won Wednesday with the kind of aggressive, suffocating defense coach Cuonzo Martin demands?
At Alabama, the Tigers knew high-scoring freshman Collin Sexton would get his points. MU’s scouting report was designed around forcing the five-star sensation to take contested shots outside of the paint. Sexton finished with 23 points but shot just 4 of 11 in the second half.
“He’s not an easy guy to guard,” Martin said. “We just tried to build that wall so if you give up something you give up the long 3-ball.”
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Kentucky (17-5, 6-3) doesn’t feature one guard as accomplished or celebrated as Sexton — but, as always, Calipari’s rotation is loaded with NBA prospects, including four projected as top 16 picks in this summer’s draft by NBADraft.net. The youngest rotation in Calipari’s nine seasons at Kentucky includes just one player who’s not a freshman, sophomore forward Wenyen Gabriel. Mizzou fans are familiar with Calipari’s leading scorer, 6-9 forward Kevin Knox, who considered signing with the Tigers last summer to play alongside fellow McDonald’s All-American Michael Porter Jr., who’s still recovering from November back surgery. Knox (15.6 points per game) has scored in double figures 17 times, including last Saturday’s 34-point outburst in a victory at West Virginia. “Kevin is a great dude,” Jontay Porter said. “He’s having a great year himself. It’ll be fun.”
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Calipari’s touted freshman class also includes point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (4.3 assists per game, 42.9 3-point shooting percentage), forward P.J. Washington and 6-5 guard Hamidou Diallo. KenPom.com ranks Kentucky as the nation’s youngest team and the fourth-tallest, averaging nearly 6-7 per player.
A win Saturday would be a breakthrough for the Tigers, who lug an 0-10 all-time record against Kentucky into the 1 p.m. national telecast on CBS. The games in Columbia have been more competitive than the bloodlettings in Lexington, Kent., but coming off Wednesday’s win, the Tigers talked of restored confidence and momentum heading into Saturday’s tipoff.
“I’m sure it was good for the fans to have a win to celebrate because they’ve been down in the dumps lately,” Jontay Porter said. “Going into Saturday it’ll be a great atmosphere, one of the best we’ve had this year because it’s Kentucky.”
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Robertson is newcomer to each of these SEC matchups — the fifth-year graduate transfer came to Mizzou from Canisius College — but he knows the sting of losing to Kentucky. Last season, his Mid-American Athletic Conference team lost to the Wildcats by 24 points at Rupp Arena. The Tigers’ oldest player knows what to expect on the court and, more important, what’s at stake in the showdown.
“Personally, I don’t believe in momentum,” Robertson said. “I like to look at one game at a time. I definitely don’t think the past affects how we play. But we’ve got to remember how tough we played (at Alabama) and come with that same competitiveness. This proved to our team we can play like this every night.”