From the bleachers to the backs, Kentucky Wildcats: UGA: Welcome to the SEC (first edition)

It didn’t take very long to see that even with a mediocre record and few if any big names that Georgia came ready to play. Even as the cats were opening up their early lead DeMarcus Cousins found out what a mediocre SEC opponent can do to you. The nearly 7 foot freshman learned quickly that anyone can get dunked on, especially in SEC play. In Cousins defense however he was trying to do as instructed and not claim an early foul by setting up for an attempted charge. I’ll bet that is the last time a player from that far out will see Big Cuz setting up for the charge. From now on I think he will get the stop or the foul just not the way he did by getting posterized by Travis Leslie.

Even John Wall could feel the heat off the play as Leslie was in the process of missing his free throw then getting his rebound, Wall was walking away from the center of the court right towards where we were sitting. You could see he was being sympathetic for Cuz but at the same time his face was saying “ouch, that burns to be him”.

It was good to see that the big man wasn’t fazed and on the next UK set managed to take it to the rim, drain the basket, miss the free shot and then get his own rebound. It was truly a shame that he fumbled the ball away as it would have been a truly defining moment in the short career of this kid. For the rest of the game he simply tried to manhandle anyone under both ends basket and truly made UGA work for anything it got inside. That’s not to say they had some effect down low.

For spurts we can see why UK is so heralded a team however there are other periods of play where we can almost agree with Cal on our 9-7 faux record. The first 10 minutes and the last 6 minutes of the game we handed UGA what we should be looking like for an opponent. Defensively smothering and at least better than average efficiency on the offensive set.

The 24 minutes in between, we were outplayed and sadly with no sense of urgency from our team to stop it. The big thing for me was that GA wasn’t bad from the field in the first half. Actually they did better than most teams we played from the field, 3, and free throws. The bad news there is that they improved in the second half just like the most recent games we have played where the opposing team is hanging in there still.

Trailing at half should have been a wake up call and it really wasn’t. The superior play of two players kept GA floating, one was obviously Thompson who I was really impressed with and the other was the “little white kid” who is actually Ricky McPhee.

Thompson played very well and wasn’t intimidated at anything that the cats threw his way. 17 pts and 13 boards show he was the main front court presence for the bulldogs. He single handedly led the dogs as they out rebounded us in both halves. Little McPhee was killing us from the perimeter and was shooting most of his from 23 feet or further. Its one of those things where sure we should have been on him tighter but there is only so much room a double screen and a run out away from the position can be guarded from. If he had been at the 20 foot mark he would have been fed leather all day but instead he got out, way out and became effective. A lot of their long rebounds came from long shots but there isn’t a reason in the world why we should have been out boarded in this game. Specifically Miller, Dodson, and Ramon should be grabbing these shots but they arent looking for them. Perhaps its a result of playing on such a fast team that you are constantly looking up the floor.
In the long and short of it Big Cuz was on his game even though the rough down low play by Georgia was an attempt to unsettle him and take him out of his game. He did just the opposite, he handled nearly every pass with a soft touch while working his way to the shot. When you get double downed every time you are going to put the ball up be ready to shoot your free throws, and Cuz did just that going 6-9. He came up big with rebounds and scores as well as taking the ball away 7 times. Sitting in for a KY team that was shooting horribly was all that Cuz could do, he picked up his team and let Psquared do his thing on the other side and willed us to victory.

There has been a lot of talk about this teams will to win (or not squander a win) while people tend to not think about us being an all freshman team like we really are. I don’t believe we are utilizing a true will to win but that we are just that imposing on the people we play. Its going to be hard for us to lose when we shoot more than the other team, but on this night we only had 7 more shots than our opponents.

In the end three events played out in my mind over and over, it’s the soft pass in to a determined to score Cuz, it’s the headband being knocked off his head and defiantly thrown to the bench as if to say “lets get it on”

and it most importantly while being enticed to participate in extracurricular activities under the basket and shrugging them off as to prove to the other guys that you are indeed better than them. Even though he is already huge, Cuz is growing in many ways.

A big hand to DeAndre Liggins proving to the world why Cal kept him on his team by playing solid defensive minutes and getting 6 pts of his own that he helped create. It seems this young man is growing at an unknown rate as well.

I am going to say this one more time here so I wont ever have to again, Psquare is gong to consistently night-in, night-out put up 17 pts and 8 rebounds. Does that mean he isn’t doing his part? What if he were doing more and taking away from his teammates? I would see complaints then as well. Scoring more isn’t going to improve his draft status, playing outside of his comfort zone well will.

With John Wall getting all the credit for leading this team Psquared needs to stay in his zone and do his thing and he will be just fine. As for Wall isnt it a familiar sight to see JWall on the line late in the game sealing another W for the cats?

If we dont have a killer instinct as a team at least our point guard has one.

With their first SEC victory in their back pocket now we can indeed look ahead to Gainsville in hopes we can put a real hurting on the “reptards” as my baby girl puts it. Lets hope we can cool the shooting of the opponent and not allow the long rebounds or it will be a long night at FLA.

A big shout out to Wazoo sports again as they have been playing some ultra-classic games of the modern era of UK including the entire 96 & 98 championship runs. I wish I could buy stock in that network. Seeing Pittsburg Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin chillin with Joker made me want to try and come up with as many papaw brooks jokes as I could but for some reason I wisely chose to focus on the game.