The Kentucky Wildcats advanced to the SEC Tournament championship game after an impressive 74-45 victory over 13th ranked Tennessee, avenging a February loss to the Vols in Knoxville.
UK was led by a huge DeMarcus Cousins performance of 19 points and 15 boards, while John Wall controlled the tempo from start to finish and created offense seemingly any time the Cats needed it.
The Big Picture
With every passing day in March, the picture comes more into focus for this Kentucky Wildcats team. The picture we speak of is the Cats’ postseason destiny.
What will be their ultimate fate?
We know, of course, that this team has the talent to win it all. But the margin for error is thinner than many in the Big Blue Nation would like to believe.
As we see them, here are the knowns and unknowns that should dictate the future of this Wildcats squad.
Known Commodities
Kentucky right now is the most talented team in college basketball. It is difficult to argue to the contrary. They possess great depth and very little dropoff in overall athleticism when going to the bench.
The Cats consistently get great performances from an array of supporting cast members, and on any given night, there is more than one Kentucky player who can hurt you.
Wall’s spectacular guard play and Cousins’ domination of the interior are the highlights. Spot shooting from Darnell Dodson, Eric Bledsoe and Darius Miller are also wild cards that can kill a team when they least expect it.
But this team is much more than that. They can dominate the glass, play suffocating halfcourt defense, and show the ability to go on huge spurts, as evidenced Saturday in their decisive 14-0 second half run to bury Tennesee.
Known Unknowns
The unknowns about this team are many.
Can Kentucky hit enough perimeter shots to keep defenses honest? Will the effort and mental focus of such a young group be able to hold out for a deep tourney run? Is Calipari a good enough Xs and Os coach to get this team through the tense moments of a white knuckler in the Big Dance? And will this team ever solve a zone?
We don’t know the answers. To be perfectly frank, we doubt the Cats will have the right answers to all these questions. This team makes a lot of serious fundamental mistakes. And free throw shooting continues to be abysmal for stretches.
But the bottom line is that Kentucky just beat a top 15 team (and a near certain 3 or 4 seed in the NCAA tournament) by 29 points on a neutral floor.
Even when the pieces are not all in place, there is enough there to overcome UK’s considerable deficits.
BBL’s Take
Sunday Kentucky will meet the winner of Vanderbilt and Mississippi State for the right to a 26th SEC tourney title. Win that game and this UK steam roller will head to the tournament with a number one seed and a favorable draw.
We still see an early exit as a definite possibility, depending on the opponent. But things could just as easily go the other way.
The Wildcats’ plot continues to thicken.
The Vols and Cats play their rubber match today, and a lot more is on the line this time.
Both teams are securely in the field of 65, but a shot at an SEC tournament championship hangs in the balance Saturday.
Kentucky needs to shoot well and control the paint if they are to pull off the big W.
We’ll have coverage after the game.
The Kentucky Wildcats get a chance to relax and scout the competition today as the first round of the SEC tournament tips off in Nashville.
The Cats will play Alabama tomorrow at 1 p.m est, after the Crimson Tide defeated South Carolina in the first game of the bracket. This will be the second meeting of the season between these two, and as we know, Bama gave the Cats all they could handle in Rupp Arena last month. Should be an interesting game.
For now, here is what we would like to see from the Cats in this tournament:
Good perimeter shooting
Having good outside games from Erick Bledsoe, Darius Miller and Darnell Dodson would be a great sign heading into the NCAAs.
Post dominance
The Cats have crushed the opposition all year, as the nation’s leader in rebound margin and a top five shot-blocking team. Getting offensive boards and fouling out opposing big men, two staples of this season, are the best remedy for poor shooting–which UK often struggles with.
The John Wall show
Wall must continue to grow and understand game situations, when to push the ball and when to slow it down. Keeping his turnovers to a respectable sub-four per game would be big.
Patterson’s production
The BBL thinks at this point that Patterson could essentially dominate and score at will if he chose to. He just lacks that fiery take charge attitude. Not that it will hurt Kentucky, as PP is ultimately all about unselfishness and winning games. Scoring in the 15 point range will keep UK in games.
We’ll be back soon with predictions and post-season speculation.
On sale now, the latest SLAM magazine with a celebration of John Calipari’s latest crop of future NBA studs.
See more here:
http://www.slamonline.com/online/the-magazine/toc/2010/03/slam-137-on-sale-now/
The Wildcats were not extremely impressive in their final home game of the 2009-10 season, but they did what they needed to do to close out a Florida team desperate for a tourney-clinching win.
The Cats were led, on Senior Day, by Darius Miller and Eric Bledsoe, who tallied 14 points each in an emotional game that could be the final game in Rupp Arena for as many as five Wildcats–three seniors plus John Wall, Patrick Patterson and DeMarcus Cousins.
Overall, Kentucky did not rebound as well as they normally do, and the Cats were outscored in the paint 36-22 for the game. UK’s young perimeter struggled with inconsistency once again, and team defense as a whole was not up to par.
Much to our displeasure, some of the worst signs from earlier in the season continued to show, including streaky outside shooting and turnovers.
But, lest we paint a completely negative picture, the BBL would like to congratulate this year’s Kentucky Wildcats on a stellar 29-2 season overall, 14-2 SEC record and regular season conference championship…the school’s 44th.
Now the real fun begins with the SEC tournament heating up this week in Nashville. The Cats will face the winner of Georgia and Auburn at 1:00 p.m. Friday.
Before then the BBL will have breakdowns on the SEC tournament, a retrospective on UK’s season, and a look ahead to the Big Dance next week.
Get ready for the madness.
The BBL is not usually one to post rumors or break news, but we’ve talked to some pretty reputable contacts today, and they have confirmed to us that the nation’s consensus top high school player, Brandon Knight, is a “done deal” to sign with Kentucky.
Rumors have been rampant that Knight was looking to confirm this news next week. But our sources say that it’s now a sure thing. The same sources also say C.J. Leslie is also pretty close to a certainty, as well.
We can’t give away our sources right now, but they include a member of the coaching staff at one of the school’s chasing Knight.
The biggest outstanding question now is what will Eric Bledsoe do when the season is over? It is our opinion that EB would be making a mistake to leave school early and that he should be the man at PG next year for UK. But the Knight signing certainly makes things interesting.
We’ll be back with more news as it comes available.
Two post-game quotes, courtesy of ESPN’s Chris Low, jumped out at us after the UK-UGA game Wednesday night. The first, from John Calipari, seems to indicate that Kentucky is putting itself in position to sign a few impact players in the late recruiting period (as if we ever doubted this). The second, from John Wall, is just a reminder that Wall is a money player and he knows it…perhaps more than anyone.
From Cal:
“Each situation is different, but I’ll sit down and be honest with every one of them [Wall, Cousins, Patterson, Bledsoe]. In most cases, you know what I’m going to say, because I’ve done it my whole career and then we’ll go back and better sign four or five more guys. Hopefully, they’re as good as the group we just brought in. And then after that, we’ll try to bring in four or five more. It’s a different day and age. You don’t have guys for three and four years.”
From Wall, on criticism of his shooting ability:
“I’ve been hearing that, but I can make shots when it’s time to make shots. I might not make them the whole game, and I might not be the best shooter there is in the country. But I can make shots when it’s time to make shots.”
Another big road test for the Cats faced and overcome.
The nation is well aware of the talent and potential of Kentucky. Most are also well aware of how deadly this team could be on any given night. But it seems there is a general disregard for the accomplishments thus far of this UK team, and a lack of overall respect for the quality of the SEC, as well.
The BBL thinks America should take Kentucky’s record for granted at its own risk. Winning in Athens is no small task. Yeah, Georgia has a losing record and no, they aren’t a postseason threat of any sort. But this is a team with a 13-3 home record that claims more quality wins than most teams in America (wins over Georgia Tech, Illinois, Vandy, Tennessee and Florida).
True, Georgia showed its immaturity and started to completely fold in the second half under heavy UK defensive pressure, but this was not an easy place to go into and win in convincing fashion. This was a solid road performance for Kentucky, regardless of what you might hear elsewhere in the national media.
Here our some of our thoughts in this first of two game summaries on UK’s solid 80-68 victory over Georgia.
John Wall found his stroke a bit Wednesday, hitting three of his first four threes and showing that he can make you pay for leaving him open on the perimeter. His first half left-handed dunk was absolutely stupefying. Overall, Wall showed great leadership and demonstrated that he has learned when to slow it down and when to push it. We are starting to change our minds about his progress…he is getting better.
Maybe the loss to Tennessee really was what this team needed to wake up out of the poor shooting funk they’ve been in. A 52% first half really set the tone and showed a short memory.
The return of Darnell Dodson was a beautiful thing to witness. We said here that DD’s body was wearing down and we were worried about his ability to contribute in March. Dodson showed his trademark lack of conscience and kept shooting even after a rough start. This is the kind of fearlessness UK needs to make a run, as his scoring provides another deadly weapon for defenses to respect.
Patrick Patterson continued his late season surge with another double-double, pulling in 10 rebounds to go with his 17 points. PP is the glue right now, and we think as he goes, so goes UK.
There is a lot that can be said right now about Eric Bledsoe. The guy has all the talent in the world, but just simply hasn’t been able to put it together for long stretches. His decision making is abysmal and the turnovers are bound to cost Kentucky at a critical moment. We still look forward eagerly to what he can do next year, but right now, sometimes Bledsoe is a liability to this team.
Coach Calipari threatened to play the bench more and followed through, giving valuable minutes to Ramon Harris, Perry Stevenson and Josh Harrellson, who all acquitted themselves nicely. Having upperclassmen contribute like these three is a total bonus. Harris and Stevenson looked really active and found their way into some rebounds and a putback or two. It’s clear that their legs are fresh due to the limited minutes they’ve seen this year. In all, the Kentucky bench dropped a season high 24 points.
Travis Leslie is seriously one of the top five college dunkers of all time. Hands down. No other way to put it. However, he struggled against UK’s length and athleticism, and had trouble with Darius Miller in particular.
DeMarcus Cousins had a mostly quiet night, relatively speaking. But his steal, open court handle and drive to the hoop with a left handed finish was a sign of the once in a generation potential this guy possesses. In a season of amazing highlights for Big Cuz, that was about as amazing as anything.
The Cats put together an absolute block party tonight, swatting 14 shots and showing that you simply can’t bring it into the lane on this team.
Oh, and also, once again, basketball royalty was in attendance Wednesday night, as the bread truck himself, Mr. Charles Barkley watched the Cats and Dogs get down.
We won’t jump to any conclusions after watching Kentucky fall to Tennessee 74-65 Saturday afternoon in Knoxville.
Sure, there are plenty of eyebrow raisers about the way Kentucky played. But all in all, this was not an extremely damaging loss. The Cats may drop a spot in the polls, but nothing more. Their No. 1 seed resume wasn’t tarnished, and they still have two more chances to clinch an SEC regular season championship.
Nonetheless, the BBL offers our thoughts on Saturday’s loss.
Why They Lost
The primary reason for Kentucky’s defeat is a very simple one. The Cats shot the ball woefully from start to finish.
You won’t win many games when you shoot 2 for 22 from beyond the three-point arc and 35% from the field overall. You also won’t win many games on the road against ranked opponents when you get behind by as many as 19 points in the second half.
The fact that Kentucky tied the game and was in a position to possibly win it is, if anything, a testament to the fight in this group. And don’t believe any of the pundits who will try to say that UK crawled back into this game on talent alone.
Kentucky played excellent halfcourt defense in the game’s final 15 minutes, rebounded well and showed a combination of determination and heart that is frankly rare for a team led by underclassmen. Couple this with the fact that UK was playing an early Saturday game on the road after a late game Thursday night, and it really is remarkable how it all went down.
But let’s also give some credit to Tennessee and coach Bruce Pearl. The Vols defended well and executed another well devised gameplan of slowing the tempo and looking for scoring options late on each shot clock. They got good contributions from 10 different players, and really played unselfishly, getting some great interior passes for buckets late in the game.
Cause for Concern
No secret here. Kentucky has to find a way to knock down perimeter jumpers.
They will be zoned relentlessly by every opponent from here on out. Good decision making from John Wall and UK’s ability to attack the offensive glass will help, but at some point, someone has to step up and make defenses respect UK from outside.
At times, we thought Eric Bledsoe, Darius Miller or Darnell Dodson could be the guy to do it. But this has just not panned out. Dodson has faded badly. His body seems worn out and he doesn’t have the same quickness on his release. He’ll need to get stronger next year if he is to become a big time scoring option. Miller, while hitting only one of five from three, stepped up and scored some big baskets during the Cats big second half push. Bledsoe chipped in nine points and five boards, but was hot and cold for most of the day.
Unfortunately, John Calipari decided not to give DeAndre Liggins a lot of good minutes. Liggins made a nice move to the hoop and hit a runner early in the game, but was essentially not heard from the rest of the game. We’d like to see him get a few more of Bledsoe’s minutes, given Eric’s poor shooting and penchant for turnovers.
Signs of Promise
All in all, the Cats performance wasn’t too far off what has become the median—another double double from DeMarcus Cousins, a solid yeoman performance from Patrick Patteson and spectacular plays and heady leadership from Wall. It was mostly the supporting cast that left a lot to be desired.
Perhaps one of the most encouraging takeaways from the Tennessee loss came in a one line quote from Wall after the game. “Just imagine two weeks from now, if we lost this game, our season’s over with,” he told reporters.
It’s hard to make a big deal about such a small comment. But the BBL thinks this speaks volumes about where this young team’s mindset is. These Cats are not motivated by a desire to do anything less than win the national championship. And their gutty comeback—spurred by Wall’s intensity—reflected this sentiment.
Tennessee is a deep and talented team. They’ve beaten top ranked Kansas already this season, and showed they can play with anyone. UK shouldn’t hang their heads on this one. The Cats close out the regular season with a road date at Georgia and a home tilt with Florida. They’ll need a few days rest and a short memory. All goals remain intact and all possibilities are still open. The road only gets tougher from here.
And so, the Cats got their revenge. The 82-61 win over South Carolina Thursday night in front of packed Rupp Arena was mighty satisfying for a Kentucky team that continues to improve, gel personnel wise and find all sorts of lethal weapons with which to punish the opposition.
As usual, we offer you our thoughts on what’s developing with this special group of Wildcats.
First off, let us just say that Rupp Arena is becoming the place to be seen in college hoops. After hosting such illustrious spectators as LeBron James and Ashley Judd earlier this season, Ben Roethlisberger and Magic Johnson showed up to watch the Cats hoop Thursday night. Says a lot about the state of basketball in Lexington.
DeMarcus Cousins is ridiculous. The big man hasn’t even grown into his body yet, has very little vertical leap at this point, and yet he is already nearly unstoppable, showing amazing touch, a variety of moves and a fierce desire to score and dominate games. Enjoy him for another month, Cat fans, this guy will be taking his road show to NBA millions soon and, barring something unexpected, a long and fruitful pro career. Maybe HOF?
Darius Miller is back…again. When Darius gets a good start, he plays with confidence and is capable of knocking down any shot. UK will need this production big time in March.
We thought Patrick Patterson had completely disappeared just two weeks ago. We were wrong. PP is back in the NBA lottery pick hunt, and his soft hands and scoring ability are coming up big. He finally showed up with a nice all-around game against a South Carolina squad that had become his nemesis over the past couple seasons. That up and under move in the early second half when he scored with the left hand was the real deal.
One quick thought. Patterson and Cousins would be the starting power forward-center tandem for 20 NBA teams right now.
South Carolina made the game interesting at multiple points and remained within striking distance for far too long. But as has become customary with this team, you never really got the feeling that Kentucky was letting it slip away. It was just a matter of when the next big run would be. It’s that kind of confidence and swagger that separates this UK group from any other since the Pitino era.
DeAndre Liggins is flat out all over the court. Guy has become a totally different person. His length and lateral quickness make him a nasty defender and excellent garbage rebounder. He just gets better with every game. As much as the complexion of this team will change next season, the BBL can’t wait to see what happens when Liggins becomes a featured option. We’re calling it now. He’ll be an Evan Turner-esque stat stuffer and all-SEC standout next year.
John Wall is still the catalyst and it’s hard to find too much bad to say about him. But he and Eric Bledsoe are still too out of control. They push the ball when it doesn’t need to be. It makes us wonder if both of these superb talents being on the floor at the same time contributes to them pressing too hard. Next year, sans Wall, it will be interesting to see if Bledsoe can improve his grasp of game tempo. Right now, EB is sort of lost. His jumper is broken and his sense of awareness on the court is at a season low.
South Carolina is in good hands under coach Darrin Horn. They have some active, athletic big men who block shots and get a lot of buckets around the goal. If Horn can keep recruiting like he has, and word is his next class is top 25 caliber, then this team will be a force in the SEC East for the next few years.
If you doubted that the diminutive Devan Downey could play in the NBA, that pull up 35-foot jumper before halftime should probably make you think differently.
As we stated last week, sometimes Brad Nessler seems to be the superior analyst to Dick Vitale. Thursday night, a few possessions into the game, Vitale claimed that South Carolina had no answer for Cousins on the interior. To this, Nessler responded, “I don’t think anyone has an answer for that, Dick.”
Good win for the Cats. Now do the John Wall.
