UK/UGA

Well, it's that time of year again, when the youthful, Calipari-led Cats set out to prove why an inexperienced team can never win a national title. It happened last Saturday at South Carolina, and it happened again today at Rupp Arena. Kentucky jumped out to a big lead in the second half of a game and then allowed its opponent to cut the lead nerve-wrackingly close but eventually finished them off.

If history teaches us anything, it is that teams that allow this to happen time after time eventually get burned. Good teams will usually pull out the wins once they open up a sizable lead; great teams will step on the throats of their opponents and blow them away. At this point in the year, it's obvious to see that the Cats fall into the former category.

And the kind of lackadaisical play we saw today from Kentucky is certainly not a sign of good things to come, especially once we have to face quality SEC opponents like Tennessee, Florida and Vanderbilt.

Doron Lamb had a huge game, but once Georgia adjusted and switched to a man-to-man defense in the second half, the Cats really had a difficult time making shots and creating opportunities off the dribble. Teams can't play zone against UK because they shoot the ball too well, and teams shouldn't be able to handle our speed and athleticism if they switch to a man-to-man, but for some reason that wasn't the case today.

Hopefully these games are just blips on the radar. Hopefully Kentucky will come out and absolutely obliterate Ole Miss on Tuesday. But I have a (tiny) gut feeling that these second half letdowns will eventually cost the Cats at least two or three games, in turn costing them a few seeds in the tourney, in turn leading to an early exit from the tournament.

But hopefully I'm dead wrong.

Hopefully.

Polls

Quick note: I've added the first of what will hopefully be many polls to the blog, so vote early and vote often! (the poll is to the right)

The Morning After

I'm not gonna lie. I did not sleep well last night. And after a performance like the one the Cats gave last night, can you really blame me?

If the team had just folded and lost by 15 or 20, I wouldn't have watched the second half or elevated my heart rate immensely for about 30 minutes and a peaceful night's sleep would have been much easier to come by.

As it happened, though, UK staged a pretty impressive comeback and had not one, but two possessions in the final ten seconds with a chance to win the game. But just when UK fans had the audacity to hope for victory, the volatile nature of this young team reared its ugly head yet again, and a turnover and half court desperation 3 were all it could muster.

Moral victory? No. In fact, hell no. We are the Kentucky Wildcats. Moral victories are for teams that play us and keep the game close. The Kentucky Wildcats do not accept "moral victories," and I would hope that no fan is happy with any part of the performance last night. Last year's team realized very quickly what it means to have every team in the conference (and country for that matter) gunning for you, giving you their absolute best game night in and night out. This year's squad has lost its first two conference games on the road and still hasn't picked up on the lesson.

Every single team in the SEC circles its games against Kentucky every year. It is every team's biggest game. Our team needs to realize that and elevate their level of play accordingly. All I can hope is that they do it before Saturday @ South Carolina.

Bama 1st Half

Ingredients for an upset:

Poor shooting team makes a bunch of 3's: Check.
Great shooting team can't buy a bucket: Check.
Frenetic crowd not taken out of the game early: Check.

What is with this team and road games? Kentucky played straight up scared in the first half, and Alabama's physicality is really causing problems on both ends of the floor. It really is disheartening to see guys like Terrence Jones, Darius Miller and DeAndre Liggins get pushed around and just take it. At least last year Demarcus Cousins would have punched somebody in the face by now.

It's going be an uphill battle to get back into this game, but I think if Knight can make just one or two shots, not even 3's, the Cats will settle down and begin to play their style of offense. The flow of a game is largely determined by the play of each of point guard and, at least in the first half, Knight has done nothing offensively.

You know the paint will be peeling off that visitor's locker room, let's hope it inspires a better performance in the second 20 minutes.

LSU First Half

After a week of hearing Coach Cal talk about how disappointed he was in the team and its effort, today's first half was about as good as any fan could expect. Terrence Jones once again started the game on the bench but still became a scoring presence for the Cats, this time-thankfully-from the low block.

Other thoughts:

• Great to see Hood and Vargas get some solid first half minutes. I think Cal is tired of hearing it from the reporters about how sparingly the bench is used and when your team is up 30, you really have no excuse. Hopefully Poole will get a chance in the second half as well, and I would think Hood and Vargas will see at least 8 to 10 minutes apiece.
• At the collegiate level and as a freshman, I honestly think Brandon Knight may be better than John Wall. He is not (quite) as explosive or creative, but the kid can shoot the lights out from anywhere on the floor and plays so poised and within himself, it's hard to think he is only 18 years old. His basketball IQ is off the charts and he seems to get better at maintaining possession and limiting turnovers every time he steps out on the floor.
• Liggins seems to have regressed a bit the last couple of games and hasn't been the omnipresent force we're used to seeing as Wildcat fans. Hopefully that can be attributed to better play from Knight, but it feels strange not seeing Liggins diving around on the floor all the time, although the swat at the end of the half was a good sign.

All in all, a great performance once we started rolling, and it certainly helps that our defense held the Tigers to a woeful 6-of-33 (18%) from the field.

Will UK get to 100? Doubtful. But I'll take winning by 50.

Mr. Jones and Me

Beating a team as bad as Auburn isn't much to get excited about, but no one would argue that it's exactly what Kentucky needed at this point in the season.
UK never trailed, held the Tigers' leading scorer to 1 point and cruised through the second half en route to a 78-54 victory at Rupp Arena. After struggling to knock down shots at Georgia over the weekend, Kentucky's shooters showed up en masse, going an even 50% from the field and draining 11-of-26 threes.
Terrence Jones has been apathetic in the last few games, and even though he was benched because of a "cold," you can't help but wonder if Cal wanted to make sure he realized that his starting spot is not guaranteed.
Whatever the reason for Jones becoming the Cats' sixth man, it sparked an historic performance from the Washington big man, who exploded for 35 points, the most ever by a Kentucky freshman. Jones came up two rebounds shy of a double-double but still led the Cats with 8, and also nailing 4-of-5 from behind the arc, much to the chagrin of his head coach.
Calipari was beside himself at times, trying to get the 6-foot-9 power forward down on the block, but it seemed that in the last few minutes he finally relented and allowed Jones some freedom on the floor.

Comments:

• Did a little better getting the ball inside in the second half, but Jones still doesn't understand that not only does he belong on the block, but we need him on the block.
• Have to agree with the ESPNU commentary crew in wondering why Cal doesn't give the bench players more minutes. With UK up 20 with just under 10 minutes to play, what's the harm in resting Knight and Lamb and bringing in Hood and Poole?
• It is sometimes sad to hear how quiet the Rupp Arena crowd can be. I realize it wasn't much of a game, but some intensity out of the student section (or the old folks section) would have been very much appreciated.
• Liggins did a phenomenal job of shutting down Earnest Ross, who up until this game was averaging over 13 a game. Having a lockdown defender like that is really something that will come in handy over and over again this year. (see the Notre Dame and Louisville games for evidence)

Next up: Saturday, 4:30 v. LSU

Auburn 1st Half

Couple of things jumped out at me watching the first half tonight:

• Obviously, hosting Auburn is maybe the best thing that could have happened after losing on the road in Athens, but it was good to see the Cats come out with some intensity early. A small part of every UK fan was worried that his/her team would come out flat.
• Is it possible that the sixth man for UK (regardless of who it is) is the best player on any given night? It's normally Doron Lamb, our best shooter and at times our best scorer, but tonight it was Terrence Jones, and he just happens to lead the Cats with 13 points at the break.
• Why doesn't this team post up more? We have a size and strength advantage against most every team, including Auburn, but we continue to take three after three. We can shoot the ball pretty well on most nights, but it would really serve this team well to focus on scoring in the paint to prepare for games when the threes aren't falling.
• Triple-Double Alert! Brandon Knight has 8 pts, 6 asst, and 4 rebounds at the break. Just saying, keep an eye out. Oh, and he also has 1 block, but I think the quadruple double may be out of reach.
• Eloy Vargas is still an incredibly big waste of space. The amount of times that man/boy goes up from inside 5 feet and gets blocked/fouled is absurd. Stick him in the weight room with nothing but EAS Myoplex and a UFC fighter for a month and then let him play again. In all seriousness, though, he needs to step up because we need bodies off the bench or this team will be exhausted come tourney time.
• Jay Williams almost had me. I was starting to respect him as a commentator and he actually made several insightful remarks throughout the first half, and then Jones took a knee to the face after being hacked while lying on the floor, and Williams said "that's exactly what you want to see if you're Auburn's coach." Really? I'm all for hard fouls and playing physically, but cheap shots? Only a Dukie.

Should be a good second half, my guess is that Polson sees about 95 seconds of the game and UK wins by 32.