Short and sweet today as the cats play isn’t really improving at all and watching games on TV is much harder than in person to see things like tempo, emotion and focus. It seems they are doing what Kentucky teams of recent history have been guilty of. They play based on their competition. It almost bit us in the butt with Miami too. Its allowing these small schools without much talent a way in the door against a mediocre approach to defense by the cats.
Some good things that I am still seeing however is the distribution of scoring. Sure JWall & P-square are going to get theirs from night to night its refreshing to see guys like Miller, Orton and even Harrellson lighting up the scoring column. Its good to see the shooting go well too as our field goal & 3pt percentages are right on track. The relentless approach to shot blocking is a healthy area as long as teams don’t try to benefit from it by getting our guys up and off their feet and get us into foul trouble. Which by the way is something it appears Big Cuz cannot do. He is averaging 3 and a half fouls per game and seems to not be able to avoid silly plays that aren’t even solid defensive attempts. The silly turnovers returned as well with UK getting 20, 10 of which were ridiculously made by this talent. There were some points in the game I wondered to myself if they were really just taking it away from us. And they were. The one in the second half where the guy dribbled the ball away from an already dribbling Bledsoe. I imagine he took quite a bit of Mexican heat for that one. Lastly the free throw percentage is steadily “not getting worse” meaning I think its headed in the right direction. It seems to be Cals mantra that free throw practice kills the shot for a lot of these kids. He is the man making 5 mil this year so I will respect that professional opinion.
DeMarcus Cousins seems to be a wild card at all times. He can break free for 27 or break down for 5, fouls that is. An average game last night turned nasty when the big kid from AL threw a flagrant elbow. He was appropriately benched but this tells of the larger problem that I see looming for him that I have already written about. Tennessee’s Wayne Chism is about as dirty and trash talking as they come, not to mention he is a pretty good baler. Guys like him will penetrate this young mans skin and once they get under they will undermine his whole game until he learns to leave his emotions at the door and off of his face. A solid effort by the big freshman including a couple of super blocks.
Miller had a solid game with 9 points and 8 rebounds. If it were not for he and Jon Hood the first half may have gotten away from us and the game would have been much closer. They book-ended scores for a period of a couple of minutes that led to at least 4 of our turnovers in what I am going to call the ugliest few minutes of play all season.
Yay for Ramon Harris who is steadily getting his playing time by doing the right things on the defensive end. Last night his anemic scoring drought continued with only 2 but he played very solid with 8 rebounds and a couple of steals. Hood’s 3 was a highlight for him but even though it was his only score he still had some solid minutes by defending the right way.
Bledsoe is hit and miss but I think it comes from his adjustment of not being at the point position and his migration to a shooting guard. I certainly hope that limp that P-square had after the game can be worked out by tonight but if not the freshman need to get it going strong and smart, which is something neither of them have done remotely as well as Patterson so far.
So the Liggins thing is not such a big deal but people are wanting to know what is up. I don’t think any of us “deserve” to know what is going on here as its obviously a private matter. What Dodson did to get benched is beyond me but he must have had the wrong attitude about it since he cant even get on to smell the floor wax these days.
Sorry it wasn’t as short and sweet as I thought. Its really tough not focusing on the next home game as it looms large in my mind. Even though I hate overshooting two opponents in Stanford and App State, bring on the Tarheels.
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