Dontaie Allen had plenty of swag while hitting seven 3-pointers against Mississippi State. (SEC Photo)
Starting Dontaie Allen might not be a statewide battle cry like it was for Richie Farmer when he played for Rick Pitino, but plenty of Kentucky fans are wondering if Allen might start against Vanderbilt tonight after his 23-point outing against Mississippi State Saturday. Kentucky assistant coach Bruiser Flint finished coaching the win at Mississippi State when John Calipari was ejected midway of the second half of the double overtime win.
So what is the plan with Dontaie Allen? Will he start? Those were questions Jerry Tipton of the Lexington Herald-Leader asked Flint Monday.
“I just coached the game for the last 10 minutes, so I’m not the head coach,” Flint laughed and said. “Coach Cal had been telling Dontaie to be ready, and he was. You’ve got to give him credit.
“I would say the same thing: Be ready. I’m just happy he got in the game and he had some success. I hope he brings confidence because he does add shooting to the team. But, again, got to be ready.
“But the whole starting thing, that’s not what I’m here for. Probably discuss it, but we just need Dontaie to come in and be ready no matter what position he’s in.”
Chances of him starting are slim. But chances of him playing significant minutes should be a given after he made seven 3-pointers for a team that had not scored over 64 points in six straight games, all losses.
Fans had been speculating what the former Kentucky Mr. Basketball from Pendleton County could do if given a chance to play. Flint said that interest and speculation about UK basketball “comes with the territory” just like it did at Indiana that he said was “somewhat intense” also when he coached there before coming to UK.
“I get it. It comes with the territory. We sort of talked to the kids about keeping the noise (away). Don’t keep making it a distraction. But, you know when you come here, that’s what you’re going to get it. The fan base is rabid and they, the Big Blue Nation, they have high expectations,” Flint said.
“But it comes with the territory I would say. We always try to tell them to block the noise and keep doing what we need to do to improve.”
Now Kentucky goes into tonight’s game as a solid favorite, something that has not happened since the season opener against Morehead. Kentucky will try to avoid the first three-game losing streak in Rupp Arena history.
“I just think that we were elated about winning a game because we’ve lost so many close games. It gave us some positive thoughts going into the next one just because we were able to pull this out,” Flint said Monday.
“We’ve lost three one-possession games this year. For us to be able to pull out, go double overtime and win on the road, I think that was big. I think sometimes you want to see the fruits of your labor, and I think we saw that.
“Hopefully going forward, the guys know this is how we’ve got to work, and if we work this way like we’ve been working, then we’ve got a chance to win some games.”
