LEXINGTON, Ky. _ With Kentucky playing Missouri at the end of the week, John Calipari posed a pointed question on his radio show in the direction of Nick Richards.
The UK coach set up the question by calling Missouri's Jeremiah Tilmon "maybe one of the best (big men) we'll play."
That led Calipari to say, "How is (Richards) going to play?"
Quite well, thank you.
Richards' sixth double-double of the season led Kentucky to a 71-59 victory over Missouri. He finished with 21 points and 12 rebounds before exiting to appreciate applause when he fouled out with 3:51 left.
Tilmon scored seven points and grabbed three rebounds in eight minutes of playing time.
With Immanuel Quickley adding a career-high 23 points, UK won rather handily in a Southeastern Conference opener billed repeatedly as a tough test.
"There's nobody who will walk into Rupp Arena (and) we'll say, 'all right. We got this one.' ...," Calipari had said on a SEC teleconference two days earlier. "You can lose any game you play."
The UK coach also appealed to fans to provided needed emotional support in the closing minutes of possession-by-possession games. "No one sits down," he said.
That wasn't necessary as No. 17 Kentucky improved to 10-3. Missouri, which was looking for its first road victory against a top-20 team since beating then-No. 3 Baylor on Jan. 21, 2012, suffered its most lopsided loss of the season. The Tigers fell to 8-5.
The first half was the Richards show. He scored 17 points to lead Kentucky to a 31-26 lead at the break.
Richards scored UK's first nine points, and 14 of the first 17. He scored in a variety of ways: Dunk or layup off a pass from Hagans. Put-back. Traditional post-ups. Two jump shots from the foul line area.
No doubt, it helped Richards that Tilmon, who has a history of foul trouble, picked up two fouls and went to the bench after playing only four minutes. Tilmon first entered the game at the 15:55 mark. It took only 10 seconds for him to pick up his first foul.
Before the game, both sides spoke of Tilmon as a key player for Missouri.
UK assistant coach Tony Barbee called Tilmon "as big a physical presence as there is, not just in our conference, but in the country."
Missouri coach Cuonzo Martin said Tilmon was "a guy that demands one or two guys around him in the post. He offensive rebounds. He's a physical presence. And he's a guy that comes into the game with a reputation. You have to identify him at all times when he's on the floor."
Kentucky needed Richards to play well. Missouri led by as much as eight with 10:22 left in the first half.
The first UK player other than Richards to score was Tyrese Maxey, the hero of the Louisville game. He made only one of six shots in the first half, a basket off a drive with 10:05 left.
Kentucky took its first led with 8:13 left when Quickley made the first of his two 3-pointers in the half. It put UK ahead, 19-17.
The lead grew to as much as 31-23 when Richards made a free throw with 2:24 left.
The only first-half basket by Missouri's leading scorer, Mark Smith, was a 3-pointer with a minute left. It set the halftime score.
The referees whistled Missouri for five fouls before the first television timeout of the second half. That figured to mean UK visits to the foul line. The Cats came into the game ranked 54th in the nation in made free throws.
You could say Kentucky "Quickley" put Missouri in a hole. Quickley contributed eight points to an 11-2 mini breakout. His two technical free throws (Javon Pickett shoved Richards) gave UK its first double-digit lead at 41-31. His three-point play on a fast-break layup while being fouled extended the lead to 46-33 with 13:11 left.
Missouri never reduced UK's lead to single digits.
