The Big Blue Lowdown

UK 72-58 Notre Dame

Notre Dame scored a ton in the first half but were pretty well spent by halftime.  Seriously, that's about it.  The second half was like a Blue-White game.   Notre Dame had nothing go on underneath and outside of Hansbrough's hot streak, they had little offense to speak of.  They got their lead up to 38-27 and from that point on, UK outscored the Irish 45-20.  It was a straight up housing.  They couldn't stop Jones and Knight, while not at the top of his form, hit enough from the outside to put the game away early after the break.  

Terrence Jones had one of his untouchably money games: 27 points, 17 boards, 3 assists, 2 blocks, 70% from the foul line, only 1 turnover in 38 minutes, no fouls (no fouls?).  Money.  He struggled against UConn and UNC (I thought he struggled early on against Portland), so he has his nights when he just can't pull it together.  But more often than not, he's the best player on the floor at any given moment.  And against the Irish, he was the Terrence Jones that folks in the Bluegrass are gonna remember long after he becomes a New Jersey Net.  

Josh Harrelson fell in the foul trap.  2 quick ones early and his 20 minutes of time was pretty skewed to the second half when UK was rolling and Notre Dame couldn't hit the side of a barn.  9 boards in 20 minutes is nice but otherwise he contributed not much. He mostly just stayed out of the way on this night.  

Knight, Jones and Miller played a ton of minutes and a lot less than usual for Liggins and Lamb.  Probably more indicative of foul trouble than any kind of coach-ly strategizing.  Knight and Jones took more than half the shots for UK. Hey, when they're hitting from the field and FT line, then I say they should take all the shots!

Darius Miller took 5 shots in 37 minutes.  That makes no sense to me whatsoever, he should be looking to score, looking to drive, looking for the open jumper whenever he can.  Its not like he got blanketed by all-world D, he just disappears too easily.  He's a scorer, he needs to go be a scorer. 

Stacey Poole hit a nice 3 off the bench to get the rally started.  And then promptly went back out of the game never to be seen again.  Not sure why he didn't get a few more minutes later on when the game was well in hand.

Notre Dame came in ranked #23, fresh off winning a tourney down in Florida where they knocked of Georgia, Cal and Wisconsin.  Early, but the talk is that Notre Dame will compete in the Big East, but I don't see it.  When Hansbrough's crazy hot, like he was in the 1st half against us, then I reckon they can hang with anyone; but UNLESS he's crazy hot, I don't think they've got enough underneath to bang in the Big East and the guard play isn't quick enough or aggressive to carry them on the road.  I don't see them as better than 7th or 8th in the Big East.

UK 81-62 Indiana

For 30 minutes this was an even match, two teams locked up in a struggle just waiting to see who would blink first.  With about 9 minutes to go, the score was tied at 50.  From then on, UK outscored the Hoosiers 31-12.  UK played well, but they didn't exactly take off at the hand, more Indiana just ran out of gas.  Their talent level was playing above its head all day and for 30 minutes it was a valiant effort but in the end, they just couldn't sustain.  Liggins really shined in this game, his shooting wasn't really great but he was aggressive and got fouled a lot.  The more he plays like that, the more he plays.  

As for Indiana, I liked their guard play.  Hulls, Rivers, Watford and Oladipo made for a nice foursome, not the most creative bunch but good shooters and not a lot of turnovers. But inside they just didn't seem very talented.  Deep, plenty of fouls, but in the Big Ten they'll win games with superior shooting and good defense.  An underdog team come tourney time that you might oughta watch.